This is an interesting and informative post about a dispute over a refence to olive colored skin in a book by Madeline Miller. The author responded about how ancient Greek used color words and other people expanded on this as well:

Here are the links posted above:

Scholars Respond to Racist Backlash against Black Achilles, Part 1: Ancient Greek Attitudes toward Africans

The sea was never blue – The Greek colour experience was made of movement and shimmer. Can we ever glimpse what they saw when gazing out to sea?

True Colors – Archaeologist Vinzenz Brinkmann insists his eye-popping reproductions of ancient Greek sculptures are right on target

Source / Madeline Miller

(via: Fangoddesses)