Genuine Ares Turquoise

Latin genuinus, natural, innate — used as a color modifier since the sixteenth century for hues that read as authentic rather than imitated. Genuine indigo, genuine ochre: moderate-to-high saturation combined with the optical impression of a hue from real pigment rather than synthetic dye. Sits at the crisp-bucket alongside true and honest.

Greek Ἄρης, god-of-war. As a color modifier, ares implies a war-god-and-iron-and-blood quality, the visual register of Olympian-Ares-and-Spartan-temple-Ares hand-war-god-and-iron-and-blood Olympian-Ares-and-Spartan-temple-and-Areopagus ares-and-war-god-and-iron-and-blood surfaces under Olympian-Ares-and-Spartan-temple-and-Areopagus Athenian-Acropolis-and-rocky-outcrop war-god-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to zeus and atlas in usage.

The hydrated copper-aluminum phosphate mined in Persia and the American Southwest for thousands of years — the firuze of Iran, the chalchihuitl of Mesoamerica, the heart of Pueblo and Navajo silverwork. The color refers to a fine Sleeping Beauty turquoise from Arizona: a saturated, slightly green-shifted blue with the slight matrix of host-rock veining. Brighter than persian, lighter than cerulean.