Wine-dark sea

In Mykonos: I haven't the gumption to look them up, but there were a few recent articles in which scientists puzzled over Homeric descriptions of colours. How could the Aegean be the same colour as wine, or a bronze mirror? Was puzzled by their puzzlement upon reading, and confirmed in my puzzlement now, because of course the sun shining on the Aegean is precisely the same colour as a metal cup of dark wine and/or a bronze mirror (the Greeks had no glass for either). It's categories like "blue" or "purple" that are poorly applied.

(I am going out again VERY SOON but to my surprise this place has kind of been driving me nuts. It's not very hot, but there's too much wind and too much light. Too much light! I've always wondered how Cortázar eked sinister madness out of the Cyclades, but now I completely grok him. In groundbreaking news, it turns out the ancients did not just randomly point to an island like "our solar deity was born here," there was a reason for it. They grow ONE palm tree still on Delos, for the form, and probably have a deal of a time keeping it watered. I was fine with the heights of Delphi, though.)

EDIT -- I hadn't really put this together, but this weekend is mid-summer AND the full moon, so yeah.