Blue

Egyptian religion

• Blue appears in Egyptian religion.

  Egyptian faience and some amulets use a blue-green glaze. The color is a made sky-and-water, not a later Marian cloth.

  from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972

  appears in · partially sourced · culturally specific

• Blue is associated with Nile.

  Later description paints the Nile as a blue course. The river’s work in Egyptian religion is inundation and kingship, not a color-theology.

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• Blue is associated with Water.

  Water is often named blue in ordinary speech. The likeness is optical and local, not a cult.

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• Blue is historically related to Vitriol.

  In Ure’s Dictionary, to dye blue with berry decoctions one boils the berries adding alum, copperas, and blue vitriol — blue is dyed with that vitriol.

  from Andrew Ure · Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines, 1839 (and later PD editions)

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• Blue is historically related to Fig.

  In Beeton’s Book of Household Management, blonde lace is washed in water in which a little fig-blue is dissolved, rubbing it very gently — blue is dissolved as that fig-blue.

  from Isabella Beeton · Book of Household Management, 1861

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• Blue is historically related to Linen.

  In Watson Biblical and Theological Dictionary, an embroidered girdle of fine linen, blue and scarlet, surrounds the coat - blue is worked into that linen girdle.

  from Richard Watson · A Biblical and Theological Dictionary, 1831–32 (Gutenberg #53884)

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• Blue is historically related to Scarlet.

  In Watson Biblical and Theological Dictionary, the high-priest embroidered girdle is of fine linen, blue and scarlet, surrounding the coat.

  from Richard Watson · A Biblical and Theological Dictionary, 1831–32 (Gutenberg #53884)

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• Blue is historically related to Black.

  In Theophilus’s Divers Arts, the mixture of colours breaks blue with black, then designs with orpiment.

  from Theophilus Presbyter · On Divers Arts, c. early 12th century

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• Blue is historically related to White.

  In Theophilus’s Divers Arts, after mixing orpiment with white lead and breaking it with blue, the painter designs with white lead on that blue-broken mixture.

  from Theophilus Presbyter · On Divers Arts, c. early 12th century

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• Indigo is associated with Blue.

  Indigo is a blue dye. The color-name and the plantation crop should not be collapsed into mood.

  from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE

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• Woad is associated with Blue.

  Woad yields a blue. Caesar’s vitrum and later antiquarian “Pictish blue” are not indigo plantations.

  from Julius Caesar · Gallic War, c. 50s BCE; Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE

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• Dye is associated with Blue.

  Dye crafts include blues from woad and indigo. Politics of cloth-color are local laws and markets.

  from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE; Julius Caesar · Gallic War, c. 50s BCE

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• Egg is historically related to Blue.

  In Theophilus’s Divers Arts, blue folium is poured with the egg tempering into a shell and later painted over with clear of egg — egg glaire tempers that blue.

  from Theophilus Presbyter · On Divers Arts, c. early 12th century

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• Purple is historically related to Blue.

  In Watson’s Biblical and Theological Dictionary, the high priest’s ephod is of gold and of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen curiously wrought — purple is wrought with that blue.

  from Richard Watson · A Biblical and Theological Dictionary, 1831–32 (Gutenberg #53884)

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• Breastplate is historically related to Blue.

  In Watson Biblical and Theological Dictionary, the breastplate is wrought with blue among purple, scarlet, and fine linen - blue is woven into that breastplate.

  from Richard Watson · A Biblical and Theological Dictionary, 1831–32 (Gutenberg #53884)

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• Mitre

  In Watson Biblical and Theological Dictionary, the plate of gold or holy crown is tied with blue lace upon the front of the mitre.

  from Richard Watson · A Biblical and Theological Dictionary, 1831–32 (Gutenberg #53884)

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• Sand is historically related to Blue.

  In Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architecture, caeruleum balls of sand with natron and grated copper are fired in jars until the copper and sand unite and are reduced to a blue colour.

  from Vitruvius; Morris Hicky Morgan (translation) · De Architectura, 1st century BCE; Morgan English 1914

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Roman religion

• Blue appears in Roman religion.

  Pliny’s Natural History seats blue among painter’s blues and blue colorants of Book 35. A named blue hue in that encyclopedia, not Egyptian blue, azure, or indigo as named blues already walked.

  from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE

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Nahua tradition

• Blue appears in Nahua tradition.

  Sahagún’s Florentine Codex records blue/green-blue among turquoise, water, and directional color speech — named blue in ritual palette ethnography. A colonial-era Nahua ethnographic attestation, not a pan-Mesoamerican essence and not an unfiltered pre-invasion voice.

  from Bernardino de Sahagún and Nahua collaborators · Florentine Codex, c. 1577

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