Who Says the Sky is Blue?

Speaking of life without green, I can’t help but share this episode of Radiolab, exploring some of the same big questions about color perception.

 

 

The last segment is particularly fascinating. It features linguist Guy Deutscher, who tells a story about William Gladstone, a British Prime Minister from the 1800s. Gladstone was deeply interested in the ancient Greek epic poet Homer and, at some point, decided to document every color reference in The Iliad and The Odyssey. Remarkably, he didn’t find a single reference to the color blue! Turns out Homer had no concept of blue; the things we might describe as blue were, to him, seen as green or violet.