color
White
The color of bone, linen, and many stones. Purity, mourning, and festival have all used white without a single rule.
White is associated with Bone.
Bone is pale. The color-name is material before it is a purity code.
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White is associated with Rite.
Linen and pale garments appear in more than one rite of seeing or burying. Each dress code is local.
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White is associated with Veil.
A pale cloth can be a veil. Covering and color are etiquette before they are a metaphor of innocence.
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White is associated with Green.
In Theophilus’s Divers Arts, white and green are mixed to fill in a drapery, and more white may be added for fine touches over the first — white is mixed with that green.
from Theophilus Presbyter · On Divers Arts, c. early 12th century
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White is historically related to Lead.
In Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architecture, white lead is prepared in Rhodes by laying pieces of lead on shavings, pouring vinegar over them, and covering the jars — white is prepared from that lead.
from Vitruvius; Morris Hicky Morgan (translation) · De Architectura, 1st century BCE; Morgan English 1914
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White is historically related to Cinnabar.
In Theophilus’s Divers Arts, flesh colour is made by grinding burned ceruse white with cinnabar until like flesh — white is mixed with that cinnabar.
from Theophilus Presbyter · On Divers Arts, c. early 12th century
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White is historically related to Linen.
In Watson Biblical and Theological Dictionary, on the day of expiation the high priest wears linen drawers, coat, girdle, and mitre, all white - white marks that linen set.
from Richard Watson · A Biblical and Theological Dictionary, 1831–32 (Gutenberg #53884)
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Black is associated with White.
In Theophilus’s Divers Arts, black is mixed with a little white to make the colour called veneda, and that mix fills up the pupils of the eyes — black is mixed with that white.
from Theophilus Presbyter · On Divers Arts, c. early 12th century
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Azure is historically related to White.
In Theophilus’s Divers Arts, white is added in equal quantity to indigo with azure, ground together, and used to give wall reflections — azure is mixed with that white.
from Theophilus Presbyter · On Divers Arts, c. early 12th century
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Indigo is historically related to White.
In Theophilus’s Divers Arts, white is added in equal quantity to indigo with azure and ground together for wall reflections — indigo is mixed with that white.
from Theophilus Presbyter · On Divers Arts, c. early 12th century
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Ochre is historically related to White.
In Theophilus’s Divers Arts, after green is mixed with ochre for a drapery fill, white is mixed with the same colour to relieve and lighten — ochre’s fill is lightened with that white.
from Theophilus Presbyter · On Divers Arts, c. early 12th century
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Lily is historically related to White.
In Watson’s Biblical and Theological Dictionary, Sadi compares an amiable youth to the white lily in a bed of narcissuses — the lily is named as that white lily.
from Richard Watson · A Biblical and Theological Dictionary, 1831–32 (Gutenberg #53884)
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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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Scarlet is historically related to White.
In Twining’s Symbols and Emblems, a Pentecost scene shows a brilliant white dove amid golden rays while the tongues of fire, thirteen in number, are painted a bright scarlet.
from Louisa Twining · Symbols and Emblems of Early and Mediaeval Christian Art, 1852 (new ed. 1885)
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Egyptian religion
White appears in Egyptian religion.
The Book of the Dead seats white among crowns, sandals, and clean linen of the justified. A named white in that funerary corpus, not a generic purity slogan across cultures and not black as Duat darkness already filed separately here.
from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972
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Roman religion
White appears in Roman religion.
Pliny’s Natural History seats white among painter’s whites and pale colors of Book 35. A named white hue in that encyclopedia, not cerussa as white-lead already walked and not chalk as the earth already walked.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
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Nahua tradition
White appears in Nahua tradition.
Sahagún’s Florentine Codex records white among directional colors, paper, and ritual dress speech — named white 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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Shinto
White appears in Shinto.
The Kojiki tells the white hare of Inaba, skinned and later restored, as a named color-marked animal in Ōkuninushi’s road narrative. White as that hare’s marked color, not a generic purity-color slogan and not rabbit as a second id.
from Ō no Yasumaro (compiler); Donald L. Philippi (translation) · Kojiki, 712 CE; Philippi trans. 1968
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Buddhist traditions
White appears in Buddhist traditions.
Watson’s Lotus Sūtra seats white among honor colors — the great white ox-cart and white light/adornment speech of Buddha-lands. White in that sūtra, not bare purity slogan and not funerary linen alone.
from Burton Watson (translation) · The Lotus Sutra, 1993 (this translation); Sanskrit/Chinese recensions much older
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sources
- Book of the Dead · Raymond O. Faulkner (translation)
Raymond O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead.
- Natural History · Pliny the Elder
Pliny, Naturalis Historia.
- Florentine Codex · Bernardino de Sahagún and Nahua collaborators
Bernardino de Sahagún, General History of the Things of New Spain (Florentine Codex).
- Kojiki · Ō no Yasumaro (compiler); Donald L. Philippi (translation)
Donald L. Philippi, Kojiki.
- The Lotus Sutra · Burton Watson (translation)
Burton Watson, The Lotus Sutra.
- On Divers Arts · Theophilus Presbyter
Theophilus, On Divers Arts (De diversis artibus / Schedula diversarum artium).
- De Architectura · Vitruvius; Morris Hicky Morgan (translation)
Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture, trans. Morris Hicky Morgan (1914).
- A Biblical and Theological Dictionary · Richard Watson
Richard Watson, A Biblical and Theological Dictionary.
- Symbols and Emblems of Early and Mediaeval Christian Art · Louisa Twining
Louisa Twining, Symbols and Emblems of Early and Mediaeval Christian Art.