Epi oinopa ponton

"Epi oinopa ponton," a phrase used often in Homer's Odyssey, means “upon the wine-colored sea,” which the poem's English-language translators have often rendered as "wine-dark." Mulligan’s attribution in Telemachus, “snotgreen,” casts a sarcastic light on this venerated epic coloring of the ocean. But Stephen recalls the phrase in Proteus and restores its Homeric tinge: "oinopa ponton, a winedark sea."

JH 2011

Photograph by Elsie esq. Source: www.flickr.com.