A dazzlingly variegated Greek sky. It was under such a sky, which for me also includes hyacinth blue and lilac, that I realised the Greek national flag is simply the pairing of the deep inviting blue of its sky and the blinding whiteness of its church walls in the sunshine. Whether the Greeks are aware of this, or even intended it so, I have no idea.

For more on the dizzying infinity of the Greek blue sky, see the following quotation by Henry Miller.

Cobalt in Heaven

And below it

Polar blue.

The body of the air is lapis, and

Where it falls

Behind the soft horizon

The light turns back to Heaven.

This is from Logue’s muscular rendition of a few books of the Iliad, a slim volume jam-packed with dazzling quotations and metaphors – for an illustrated selection see the bestellar review.

Source: Christopher Logue, War Music: An account of Books 1-4 and 16-19 of Homer’s Iliad, London: Faber and Faber, 2001, p. 203

Photo credit: Raining Huang at unsplash.com