Wine-dark sea

Wine-dark sea is a traditional English translation of oînops póntos (οἶνοψ πόντος, IPA: /ôi̯.nops pón.tos/), from oînos (οἶνος, "wine") + óps (ὄψ, "eye; face"), a Homeric epithet.

The only other use of oînops in the works of Homer is for oxen, for which is it used once in the Iliad and once in the Odyssey, where it describes a reddish colour.

[4] In the 1980s a theory gained prominence that after Greeks mixed their wine with hard, alkaline water typical for the Peloponnesus, it became darker and more of a blue-ish colour.

[citation needed] Approximately at the same time P. G. Maxwell-Stuart noted that, in general usage the term οἰνωπός – "wine-eyed" – refers to a 'deep reddish-brown', but that its connotations in poetry include, 'drunkenness, blood, and the abandon which accompanies surrender to alcohol and so, through those associations, it can be made to imply unsteadiness, violence, anger, and even death'.

The 'wine-dark sea' has often been invoked, along with the seeming lack of a word to refer to 'blue' in the Homeric texts as part of the larger discussion about the development of colour-naming in different cultures.