The histroy of purple is not only vast but also captivating - I simply had to write a second part!
Today we will dive into the origins of becoming a status symbol for the elite.
Next to the other attributes already mentioned in the previous article, purple has been closely associated with wealth, leadership and power.
But where does the connection come from?
The Roman Empire
Question: What do Erasmus, Homer, Shakespeare and Mark Twain have in common?
All said: “Clothes make the man.” (Ok, each used slightly different words, but meant the same.)
Nowhere was the idiom truer than in Ancient Rome.
Purple dye was so rare and unimaginable valuable that it was only reserved for the elite to wear.
But where did this precious dye come from?
A sea snail!
Short-spined Murex brabdaris, Etching by Wenceslaus Hollar ca. 1646
The Phoenicians (modern Lebanon) discovered in the 16th century B.C., that a certain species of marinesnail, Bolinus brandaris, would emit a purple hue when it was irritated.
In their natural habitat, the snails used the secretion, an organic form of bromide, as a sedative when hunting their prey.
But they would also secrete the same compound when under attack from predators.
The Phoenicians found that they could irritate the snails, causing the substance to be emitted.
Then they could either collect the secretion or crush the shell to extract the mucous.
Each creature contained just one drop of this precious liquid and it took approximately 250,000 shellfish to produce just one fluid ounce of the dye at costs and efforts that made the purple toga truly royal.
But this was not the end of the production - only the start.
Imagine the smell as literally hundreds of thousands of snails had to die to produce a single ounce of the dye.
Most Romans pretended it was the “scent of the sea”
The enormous pits had to be located far away from the city because people could not survive in the smell.
There, the pigments would be extracted from the rotting shellfish and soaked in stale urine mixed with wood ash andwater”
The resulting color became known as "Tyrian purple" or “purpura and was so well known it was mentioned in Homer's"Iliad" and Virgil's "Aeneid."
It is believed that Romans adopted their pigments from the Greeks, alongside their art, their philosophy and their gods, but it wasn’t until 48 BC that purpura was decreed a royal color, only allowed for the caesar.
The descendants of God
Tyrian purple, or purpura, was so famous, it even has its own mythical origin story:
Julius Pollux, a 2nd-century Graeco-Roman scholar and rhetorician, said Hercules and his dog were walking on the beach on their way to court a nymph named Tyro.
His dog bit a sea snail, and the snail's blood dyed the dog's mouth Tyrian purple.
Seeing this, the nymph demanded a gown of the same color, and the result was the origin of purple .
This tale not only stressed the importance of the dye (by attributing its discovery more or less to the great Hercules) but has a grain of truth since it connects the color with the sea snail.
"The discovery of Purple", painted by Theodoor van Thulden between 1636 - 1638
Purple also came to represent spirituality because the ancient leaders wearing it were widely considered to be descendants of the gods.
Military genius, Alexander the Great wore a purple cloak nearly every day dyed with the famous Tyrian purple.
As did the kings of Egypt and of course, Roman mastermind, Julius Caesar.
Seduced by Cleopatra’s lavish lifestyle, Julius Caesar returned to Rome with an obsession for the wealth and prosperity inscribed in this colour.
Cleopatra did not only dress in that magnificent shade, but she also had purple sofas built for her, while purple galleys were sailing her seas.
The assassination of Julius Caesar, painted by William Holmes Sullivan, ca. 1888
The Roman Republic
In the Roman Republic (509 B.C - 27 B.C.), wealthy men with more than 400,000 sesterces (ancient roman coin during the Roman Republic) were inducted into a special class known as the equites.
One of the advantages of being an equite was permission to wear a narrow Tyrian purple stripe in one's robes. Considering the average Roman legionary was paid 900 sesterces per year, the equites could most certainly afford the luxurious dye.
But Tyrian purple was sought out not only for its brightness and hue but also because the dye was colour-fast and resisted fading.
By Imperial Rome (27.B.C. - 476 A.D.), only the Emperor Augustus Caesar was allowed to wear full garments in Tyrian purple. (Augustus Caesar came to power after the assassination of Julius Caesar, his great-uncle.)
Purple was by now synonymous with power, so only the Emperor had access to any shade of it.
Even wearing imitation shades of purple made with cheaper materials resulted in punishment.
This association of royalty and purple continued well into the Byzantine Empire. (330 - 1453 A.D.)
Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium
In the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, Empresses gave birth in the "Purple Chamber" and honourable emperors were "born to the purple" (meaning born into privileged circumstances) as a way to separate them from those who won or seized their title.
A portion of the death shroud of Emperor Charlemagne in 814 A.D.
However, after the Fall of Byzantium to the Ottoman Turks in May 1453, the method of producing purple dye was lost and the greater use of scarlet replaced purple in The West, especially after the discovery of red cochineal dye from The New World.
Laws were introduced to protect the colour’s use.
King Henry VIII
In 1547, when Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey, was tried for high treason against Henry VIII, the evidence against him included that he had been seen wearing purple, which only the hotheaded king was allowed to wear.
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey 1546
Queen Elizabeth I
This exclusivity extended to the Elizabethan era, during which the people in England were to abide by Queen Elizabeth I’s sumptuary laws that strictly regulated what colours, fabrics and clothes were allowed to be worn by different classes within society.
These laws forbade anyone but close relatives of the royal family to wear purple.
Over time though, the hue became less costly and complex, and consequently more accessible to lower classes in society.
Victorian era
In 1856, 18-year-old English chemist William Henry Perkin accidentally created a synthetic purple compound while attempting to synthesise quintine, an anti-malaria drug.
Recognising that the mixture could be used to dye fabrics, he patented the dye and manufactured it under the names aniline purple and Tyrian purple.
The colour’s name was later changed to "mauve"; based on the French name for the purple mallow flower.
Various shades of purple and mauve were then produced, and the Victorians used them in their staged release from the strict colour of black in mourning rituals.
Our word 'purple' in modern English comes from the Saxon "purpul", which in turn comes from the latin "purpura", and that from the Greek 'porphura. This was one of the names for the sea snail at the basis of the colour.
King George VI
The Coronation of the wonderful and courageous King George VI took place on 12th May 1937 at Westminster Abbey in London.
He ascended the throne upon the abdication of his brother, Edward VIII, on 11 December 1936, three days before his 41st birthday.
What an extraordinary King! painted by Sir Gerald Kelly between 1938 and 1945
This brings me to the end of this blog.
I don't know about you, but the more I know about this colour, the more I have started to appreciate it.
But most of all - I am absolutely delighted no more creatures have to give their lives so we can wear it!
Wishing you a wonderful day, wherever you are. :)
Until next time.