The Mediterranean was also awash with myths about how human beings first discovered purple.
Alexander the Great and his successors wore purple as their symbol of royal authority. King Solomon supposedly decorated the Temple of Jerusalem with Tyrian purple. In the Iliad and the Odyssey, Homer reserves purple for the greatest warriors and kings. The dye took the Mediterranean world by storm. Some historians even speculate that the word "Phoenician" is derived from the Greek word for "purple." The Phoenicians exported purple all around the Mediterranean, making their dye and themselves quite popular. Tyrian purple was named after the Phoenician city of Tyre, where the dye was first produced in the Bronze Age. It was worth the cost, however Tyrian purple was famous because over time its color would not fade but actually become brighter and more beautiful. It took thousands of these snails to produce even a small amount of usable dye, making Tyrian purple extremely expensive. Tyrian purple was made from the secretions of a certain sea snail, called a Murex. One of the rarest, though, was Tyrian purple. All dyes were made from a natural source like a plant, animal, or mineral, and some were rarer than others. But for the 1 percent of the 1 percent, there was a status symbol shrouded in myth and worth more than gold: purple.ĭyes were difficult to produce in the ancient world. Just like today, the elites lived in massive houses, wore luxurious clothing, and dined on decadent delicacies. In the world of the ancient Mediterranean, there were plenty of ways for the upper class to flaunt their wealth.
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