"Colour of triremes" Topic

Were there any particular colours used by the Greeks and Persians for their galleys? Also, what about Romans/Carthaginians?

Check out Osprey Salamis campaign book or the New Vanguard series Warships of the Ancient World. Some good illustrations on the ships.

Homer said ships were black, but his lexicon apparently lacked many color words (e.g. "blue", which is why the sea is "wine dark"), so they might actually have been deep brown or very dark gray, like the color of weathered pitch.

The trireme Olympias is maintained in a nice mid-brown varnish. Many aspects of the ship are as accurate as possible, but for practical reasons the varnish might be modern, so I wouldn't take this as gospel.

I don't know of any national, regional, religious or ethnic preferences affecting galley colors. I consider red, white, and various wood colors (browns, tans, yellowish tans, etc.) to be likely candidates for paints/stains on outer hulls. The inner surfaces (decks and rails and stuff) would probably be the colors of raw wood, from tan to light gray, for the same reasons ships of the Age of Sail were.

Other colors were likely to be too exotic or perishable as stain or paint over wood, except maybe on giant polyreme flagships soon after leaving harbor.

Of course, this didn't stop me from painting a whole fleet of galleys in a rainbow of colors. But I did this to differentiate squadrons and sides in action, not for historical accuracy.

- Ix

Yellow Admiral, if you have any photos you could share of your "gallactic" fleet, I would love to see them.

There is also the issue of available pigments;
Tyrian Purple was available from the Phoenicians/Carthaginians.
Lapis Lazuli (blue) would have come from Afghanistan via the Silk Road and was likely to have been expensive.
Yellow and Red Ochre would have come from Egypt as would Unmber, they could also have supplied Malachite (green).
The Greeks are known as having developed Red and White Lead paint.

In the Middle Ages and until its disappearance, almost all the galleys were painted red, with a pigment made from fish waste.

Ochre is a very common mineral throughout the Mediterranean, it is not necessary to import it from distant areas if you are not looking for very specific colors.

Purple and lapis lazuli were tremendously expensive, only suitable for luxury items. Although warships have always had a propaganda component that has made them look lavishly decorated as a demonstration of political power, I don't think they were standard materials considering that the paint needs to be periodically renewed.

Indeed, though the ships themselves were expensive items and kept in purpose built sheds when not in use.
This suggests that they were intended to be kept for years or decades and would have needed their wood protecting in some form.
During later periods lead white was used on sailing vessels which the Greeks developed along with Red Lead which is known as a maritime paint now.

As Acronim implies, there's red ochre in the Aegean, which is attested as being used for triremes (among other things). The best supposedly came from Keos: there's a mid-fourth century inscription (IG II2 1128; RO 40) that has Athens trying to regulate its export.

The naval catalogues of Athens (also in the fourth century) suggest that a trireme's service life was up to about 20 years (I understand, although it's not my period at all, that the records of the Venetian Arsenale suggest that a galea sottile would last about 10 years).

Thucydides 6.31 (describing the departure of the Athenian fleet to Sicily in 415) is light on specifics but suggests that in at least some circumstances quite a lot of money and effort could be spent on making the ships look nice.