The Ancient Art of Color

Quick note: the article states that some tellings of the myth behind the dye say that Hercules did it. Actually, that was (probably) a case of interpretatio graeca, in which the Greeks identified Heracles with the Canaanite Melqart, “King of the City,” and then the Romans did their own interpretatio romana.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpretatio_graeca

Tyrian purple can and should be extracted from live snails not crushed dead ones. You pluck them off a rock, poke them with a stick, they spit dye on to your skein, and you put them back, annoyed, but ready to make more. This is how it's done in America. I don't know what's wrong with Europeans that they can't figure this out.

> After the Ottomans took Constantinople, the use of Tyrian purple died out. Popes and cardinals changed their vestments from purple to red, and the color disappeared from use.

The article was almost right until here but this is just unbased. The truth is: The Byzantine Empire fell in 1204 and then Tyrian purple fell into disuse. The late new Byzantine Empire under the Palailogos had already switched to red and gold as their royal colors, and the Palailogos-Ottoman transition didn’t change this.

Interesting history here on the natural origins of purple and blue pigments. Beautiful art references.

More details on purple and other colors in Ancient Rome:

https://exhibitions.kelsey.lsa.umich.edu/ancient-color/index...