WI No Blue Eyes in Humans?

Re Athena, I was always taught to translate it as Owl-Eyed, due to their glaring and shiny quality. And you know, her typical owl symbolism. This does have some relevance to the dark/light dichotomy mentioned before.
 
How about cyan or aqua? I have a similar color of eyes, and I sometimes use either of those to describe it.


Mine are what I'm calling grazel - sort of mix of grey and hazel.
Essentially I have the eyecolours (except red/pink of course) mixed in together and the colour varies due to light.

but the thing is, would you actualy see those words on a driver's licence ? Back when I got my first security licence, the guy looked at my eyes, squinted a bit, said "blue..... no green........" then decided "screw it" and typed "pers". I'm just curious what word would be the "legal" one used in english.
 
Mine are what I'm calling grazel - sort of mix of grey and hazel.
Essentially I have the eyecolours (except red/pink of course) mixed in together and the colour varies due to light.

I remember hearing (but someone can correct me) that while there are pure blue eyes, other pale colours like green and other various hues are actualy a combination of blue and yellow/brown bits that simply appear uniform from a distance (true in my case anyway):

eye.jpg
 
I remember hearing (but someone can correct me) that while there are pure blue eyes, other pale colours like green and other various hues are actualy a combination of blue and yellow/brown bits that simply appear uniform from a distance (true in my case anyway):
Can't do this without explaining how eye colours work, as there are several causes for them.

Brown eyes are caused by large amounts of melanin in the eye (the stroma to be specific, I think); different types of brown exist and are the results of differing levels of melanin. Those shades stay constant.

Blue eyes are caused by Rayleigh scattering (the same phenomenon that makes the sky blue), due to lacking melanin in the stroma. Because it is an optical effect, and not something caused by a particular type of pigment, it differs in different lights.

Amber (aka yellow) eyes are caused by the pigment known as lipochrome; amber eyes are rather solid in hue and do not change. Not to be confused with hazel.

Green eyes are caused by Rayleigh effect and either more-than-blue amounts of melanin or the presence of lipochrome; because of this multitude of factors they are subject to lighting conditions to varied degrees and can be either solid or splotchy.
Green eyes are rarer overall than blue eyes because of this, but can also be found in a larger area.

Hazel is caused by medium amounts of melanin; it's also somewhat dependant on light and usually very splotchy.

Grey eyes are possibly caused by a pigmentation or a type of light scattering. I don't know, I'm law student.

Because of the many causes of eye colour, it can lead to weird situations if multiple factors are 'in play'. My dad has green-ish hazel eyes, my mother has blue eyes, as do my siblings, and I've got solid, dark green eyes. Eye colour is a complicated matter (and yes, I've got DNA evidence that these people are my blood relatives). ;)
 
Can't do this without explaining how eye colours work, as there are several causes for them.

thanks for the explanation.

Because of the many causes of eye colour, it can lead to weird situations if multiple factors are 'in play'. My dad has green-ish hazel eyes, my mother has blue eyes, as do my siblings, and I've got solid, dark green eyes. Eye colour is a complicated matter (and yes, I've got DNA evidence that these people are my blood relatives). ;)

my money would actualy be on you being a changeling. Ever feel the call of the wee faery folks ?
 
I never thought how an anonymous Romanian/Ukranian farmer who lived 6,000 years ago can drastically impact te future just by being born with a genetic mutation in his life. Just think. Without him, there would be no Brangelina meaning both no Brad or Angelina. There would also be no Tom Cruise or his second wife Nicole Kidman. Also, no blue eyes means no Leonardo DiCaprio or Kate Winslet so James Cameron would have to find two new leads for the titanic; oh thats right there would be no James Cameron either. Cameron Diaz, Reese Witherspoon and Jessica Biel also wouldn't exist. Neither would Katy Perry or Taylor Swift. Some of the hottest women in the world including my girlfriend, Megan Fox, Adriana Lima and my girlfriend :( (I know I put my girlfriend twice) would not exist either. Neither would some of the greatest musicians of all time such as Mozart, Frank Sinatra, Elvis or Bob Dylan. All presidents except for at most six (John Quincy Adams, Andrew Johnson, Chester A. Arthur, LBJ, Nixon and Obama) would not exist either. The list goes on and on. Finally there would be no me. All of these other people could be replaced except me of course :) So if you have blue eyes and are in my shoes, just thank the mutated eastern European farmer who made your life possible six millenia ago.
 
Can't do this without explaining how eye colours work, as there are several causes for them.

Brown eyes are caused by large amounts of melanin in the eye (the stroma to be specific, I think); different types of brown exist and are the results of differing levels of melanin. Those shades stay constant.

Blue eyes are caused by Rayleigh scattering (the same phenomenon that makes the sky blue), due to lacking melanin in the stroma. Because it is an optical effect, and not something caused by a particular type of pigment, it differs in different lights.

Amber (aka yellow) eyes are caused by the pigment known as lipochrome; amber eyes are rather solid in hue and do not change. Not to be confused with hazel.

Green eyes are caused by Rayleigh effect and either more-than-blue amounts of melanin or the presence of lipochrome; because of this multitude of factors they are subject to lighting conditions to varied degrees and can be either solid or splotchy.
Green eyes are rarer overall than blue eyes because of this, but can also be found in a larger area.

Hazel is caused by medium amounts of melanin; it's also somewhat dependant on light and usually very splotchy.

Grey eyes are possibly caused by a pigmentation or a type of light scattering. I don't know, I'm law student.

Because of the many causes of eye colour, it can lead to weird situations if multiple factors are 'in play'. My dad has green-ish hazel eyes, my mother has blue eyes, as do my siblings, and I've got solid, dark green eyes. Eye colour is a complicated matter (and yes, I've got DNA evidence that these people are my blood relatives). ;)

I had also explained this back on post # 28

Eye color comes down to three factors: one, melanin (brown) pigmentation, two, lipochrome (yellow) pigmentation, and three, Rayleigh or Mie light scattering due to turbidity in the stroma (the front part of the iris).

Eyes without pigmentation can be blue or gray, depending on whether Rayleigh scattering dominates (less turbidity -- blue) or Mie scattering dominates (more turbidity -- gray).

Eyes with only lipochrome pigment can be amber or green, depending on the turbidity of the stroma (less turbidity -- green, more turbidity -- amber).

Eyes with lipochrome pigment plus a small amount of melanin pigment are hazel, and eyes with a lot of melanin pigment are brown.

So if there were no blue eyes, there would probably be no gray eyes either. Let's say that lipochrome concentrations never go to zero. Then people who are blue-eyed would be green-eyed, and people who are gray-eyed would be amber-eyed instead (assuming that stroma turbidity and melanin concentration are unchanged from OTL).
 
Possibly so; a translation of the Iliad I read recently rendered her epithet as "grey-eyed Athena" (this is Robert Fitzgerald's English translation). Could someone who knows ancient Greek comment on this? (I'm assuming we have such a person, because AH.com is awesome).

Homeric colors are really weird (orange skies, purple sheep, etc.), which feeds the idea that he was blind. It is probably that he's using words that only later came to refer to colors, but originally referred to luster. In practice it means that you get some evocative translations ("wine-dark").

Athene is called 'glaukopis,' which is probably best translated as 'shining-eyed' or 'gleaming-eyed.' It most likely does indicate that she has blue/grey eyes, however, and glaukos eventually does come to mean grey.

The Greeks in general go back and forth between thinking of blond/red hair and blue/grey eyes as sexy and exotic or weird and barbaric. Aristotle connects the blondness of Northern Europeans to their racial inferiority, but loads of legendary heroes are described as blond.
 
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