Dear All,
being Mediterranean, can I disclose to you - Britts, Americans and
Australians -
what this mysterious greenness means? ( Am I now adding something very
essential to the understanding of Saffo's line? It is probable: We have an
idiom that says that enviousness turns you green, like bile. Since greenness
is the very color of someone's complexion when ravaged by such a feeling,
thus she would be greener than grass; since, being a poems of jealousy, as a
initially illuminated you All about, this is the effect on humans of this
debasing sentiment: Saffo is envious of the beauty of the young man.
Understood?
For any other clarification, please, do not hesitate to contact me! ; )
Love and affection,
EP
>
> As for the green grass, what Sappho says is that she turns
> "greener than grass," which obviously must mean "pale", though it is
> not well understood exactly what is pale about grass. Some argue,
> adducing a late and uncertain parallel, that she means "greener
> than the dry grass of summer." Others have claimed that the swarthy
> Mediterranean complexion turns greenish rather than white when a
> person goes pale, a theory which has always seemed to me absurd: I
> myself have a somewhat Mediterranean complexion and the only time I
> turn green is when I have drunk three strawberry frozen daquiries.
> Better parallels might be Homer's "green fear" and passages in
> various authors where the Greek word (which incidentally is chloros,
> whence "chlorophyll") seems to mean "pale green" or "yellowish
> green". It's well established that ancient Greek color terms don't
> map directly onto English ones; maybe the word just means "sallow".
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