What did the poet Homer frequently describe as 'wine-dark'?
Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age attributed to many natural objects feel strange to modern readers. For example, Homer applies the adjective "porphyr"eos, which in later Greek roughly means "purple" or "dark red," to describe blood, a dark cloud, a wave, and a rainbow, and he uses the epithet "oinops" ("wine-looking") to refer to the sea. Gladstone explained this by suggesting that the ancient Greeks categorized colours mainly in terms of light/dark contrasts, rather than in terms of hue. Many readers, however, have read Gladstone's explanation of Homer's colour terms as a suggestion that he and the other ancient Greeks were colourblind. The most controversial line
History of wine the Elder, describe the ancient Greek method of using partly dehydrated gypsum before fermentation and some type of lime after, in order to reduce the acidity of the wine. The Greek Theophrastus provides the oldest known description of this aspect of Greek winemaking. In Homeric mythology, wine is usually served in "mixing bowls" rather than consumed in an undiluted state. Dionysus, the Greek god of revelry and wine—frequently referred to in the works of Homer and Aesop—was sometimes given the epithet "Acratophorus", "giver of unmixed wine". Homer frequently refers to the "wine-dark sea" (, "oīnōps póntos"): in lack of a