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A DYE FOR KINGS: WHAT IS TYRIAN PURPLE?

Throughout history, color has played a vital role in our civilizations. Here is
the history of Tyrian purple, the world’s most expensive dye.

Jan 6, 2023 • By Greg Beyer, BA History & Linguistics, Journalism Diploma


 

Color has been used to impose uniformity among militaries, as well as for
practical reasons (camouflage). Conversely, it has been used to invoke and evoke
a sense of fashion and individuality. Fashion also plays, and has played, a
considerable part in distinguishing and separating individuals within class
systems. No color has arguably done so more than the color purple. Specifically,
Tyrian purple, the production of which was a closely guarded secret for
millennia, making the dye the rarest and most expensive color in history.

 


THE BIOLOGICAL SOURCE 

Bolinus brandaris, the spiny dye-murex, via Odyssey Traveller

 

The dye is found in the hydrobranchial gland of a number of predatory sea snails
such as the spiny dye-murex (Bolinus brandaris), the banded dye-murex (Hexaplex
trunculus) and the red-mouthed rock shell (Stramonita haemostoma). Various other
similar sea snails are also used, but dye production from them is less common
and a more recent development as opposed to the traditional murex dye production
which dates back to roughly 4,000 years ago.



 

Each species generates a mucus from which the dye is extracted, and each species
yields a variation in color. The banded dye-murex is found today in the western
Mediterranean and was used by Phoenician colonies there to create an
indigo-colored dye. A blue dye color known as tekhelet also traditionally comes
from this species, and was an important color for dyeing tzitzit
(fringes/tassels) on tallits (prayer shawls) used in Jewish religious practice.

 

Hexaplex trunculus, the banded dye-murex, via inaturalist.nz

 


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Another factor in the variation of Tyrian purple color is the minor differences
in the process of extracting the dye. It is a difficult process that requires
much knowledge of the biological systems at work. There are biochemical,
enzymatic, and photochemical reactions that take place within the process as
well as reduction and oxidation processes. Timing is also a huge issue, as the
dye begins to degrade as soon as the snail is out of the water. As such,
production facilities were historically right next to where the creature was
harvested.

 

Because of these factors, the process of dye extraction was complex and
time-consuming, requiring knowledge and skill. As such, the process was a
closely-guarded trade secret during ancient times and during classical
antiquity.



 

There are other species of sea snails in the murex family that can be used to
produce dye and are not found in the Mediterranean, such as Plicopurpura Pansa,
found in the eastern Pacific tropical zone, and Plicopurpura Patula, found in
the western Atlantic tropical zone around the Caribbean.

 


THE DISCOVERY OF TYRIAN PURPLE

A small wood panel painting by Peter Paul Rubens of Melqart (Hercules) and his
dog discovering the murex hue c. 1636. The sea snail is erroneously depicted as
a conical nautilus shell instead a prickly and pointy murex one. The message,
however, is the same, via The Eclectic Light Company

 

According to legend, the city of Tyre, from where Tyrian purple came, was
founded by the Phoenician deity Melqart, also known as Heracles of Tyre (later
becoming adopted into the Greek and Roman pantheon as the famous
Heracles/Hercules of Greek myth).



 

The story of the discovery of Tyrian purple was first related by Julius Pollux,
a Greek grammarian and Sophist from the 2nd century CE. Melqart’s dog, one day,
while walking along the beach with its divine owner, had stopped to chew on a
murex sea snail that had washed up on the shore, hence staining its mouth with
the purple hue. Melqart, thinking his dog was bleeding, inspected the canine’s
mouth, only to find that it was stained purple. Shortly thereafter, Melqart
arrived for a rendezvous with his lover, with his dog in tow. When his lover saw
the purple stains on the dog’s mouth, she requested a garment of the same color.
Thus began the process of discovering the secrets of dye extraction from the
spiny murex sea snail.

 


TYRIAN PURPLE IN ARCHEOLOGICAL RECORDS

A 3000-year-old fragment of dyed cloth found in 2021 in Israel shows the
permanency of the murex dye. Image by Dafna Gazit, Israel Antiquities Authority,
via The Times of Israel

 

Archeological evidence from Tyre shows that vast quantities of the snails were
harvested and left to decompose. Ancient authors wrote about the production of
Tyrian purple and conveyed the fact that the process created a hideous stench
that hung over the city. Two different murex dyes were produced at a very early
stage in the development of the industry, and the product was mass-produced on
an astounding scale. Although the secrets to the extraction of the murex mucus
and the construction of the dye have been rediscovered in modern times, the
ability to mass produce the substance is lost.



 

Despite the fame of Tyre as the source for the dye, archeological discoveries on
Crete have suggested that the Minoans preceded the Tyrians in murex production
by a few centuries (2000 – 1800 BCE). The discovery of murex shells in Southern
Italy also suggests the dye was being processed there as early as 1800 BCE.
During the Phoenician period, the industry was exported out of Tyre and into
Phoenician colonies, notably in North Africa, where variations in the shellfish
species used provided variations in color.

 

The dye was also processed the same way in ancient Mexico, which is salient in
that there was no contact between the Mesoamericans and the Mediterranean
civilizations until 1492 when Christopher Columbus sailed to the “New World.” In
both cultures, the dye was prized above all others, but the smell was notedly
disagreeable. The Ancient Egyptian Anastasi Papyrus (c. 1250 BCE) notes that the
smell was so bad that dyers’ hands stank like rotting fish, and the Talmud gave
women the right to divorce their husband if he became a murex dyer.



 


TYRIAN PURPLE IN CULTURE & HISTORY

Mosaic of the 6th century Byzantine Empress Theodora wearing Tyrian purple
vestments, via Teller Report

 

Tyrian purple was the most valuable thing in the ancient and medieval world. It
was worth more in weight than any other substance that was traded. As such, it
became a symbol, not just of power and wealth, but of extreme power and wealth.
In Greece, the color was tightly controlled by legislation. Only high-ranking
political figures could wear Tyrian purple.



 

In Rome, only a select few were allowed the privilege of wearing the color.
These sumptuary laws excluded the vast majority of the Roman citizenry from the
privilege. Roman senators were permitted to wear a purple stripe on their togas.
In 40 CE, Emperor Caligula had King Ptolemy of Mauretania assassinated during
the latter’s visit to the imperial court in Rome. According to some accounts,
the reason for the murder was that Caligula was offended by the fact that
Ptolemy wore a purple cloak, thus offending the emperor. The sociopathic
Caligula was hardly a figure of sanity, so the story is certainly plausible.

 

It was not just the dye but the concept of the color that the dye introduced
that became symbolic. In the palace in Constantinople, empresses gave birth in
the Purple Chamber (constructed from igneous porphyry rock, which is purple),
hence the term “born to the purple” – a term describing the idea that true
emperors were born as opposed to those that became emperor by seizing power.
Nevertheless, Tyrian purple specifically was worn by the Byzantine Emperors and
Empresses.



 

The power of the Byzantine Empire eventually waned. In 1204, during the Fourth
Crusade, Constantinople was dealt an irrevocable blow when Crusader armies
sacked the city. The Byzantine Empire never recovered its former glory, and the
Byzantine demand for Tyrian purple was so weak that the industry could not be
supported. In 1453, Constantinople fell to the Turks, and in the process, the
secret of murex production and dyeing was lost for centuries.

 

A dress dyed with William Henry Perkin’s mauveine, Getty Images, via artsy.net

 

A reasonable facsimile of similar color to Tyrian purple was discovered in 1856
by an English chemistry student, 18-year-old William Henry Perkin, who was
attempting to create quinine for the treatment of malaria at the time. The
resultant discovery was the first synthetic dye (mauveine), originally named
“Tyrian purple” until Perkin decided on the name “mauve.” Thereafter, purple
became a highly popular color in Victorian England. It was no longer just for
the rich and powerful nobility. Perkin’s invention brought purple to the masses.



 

In 1998, after a lengthy trial and error process, the method for creating Tyrian
purple was rediscovered, and today, there are a few small industries that create
the dye. Of note is the industry in Oaxaca, Mexico, where the extraction of the
shellfish mucus does not require killing the animal. Prices, just like in
ancient times, are unbelievably high. A gram of Tyrian purple dyestuff will cost
you thousands of dollars.

 

Genuine Tyrian purple pigment, via Kremer Pigmente

 

For thousands of years, Tyrian purple existed as the most expensive substance in
the world. It was not just the rarity of the color in that thousands of murex
snails had to be processed to make a tiny amount of dye, but the highly complex
process of extraction and the quality of the end product. In addition, it is
attested that the fibers were dyed before they were spun into fabric, increasing
the price of garments that bore the color.



 

Tyrian purple has had a significant effect on the perception of color in human
civilization. Because of the dye, purple will always be symbolic of the rich and
powerful, even if the color is no longer an unattainable dream for the masses.

Cite this Article


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A History of the Ancient & Classical City of Tyre and Its Commerce

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By Greg BeyerBA History & Linguistics, Journalism DiplomaGreg is an editor
specializing in African history as well as the history of conflict from
prehistoric times to the modern era. A prolific writer, he has authored over 400
articles for TheCollector. He is a former teacher with a BA in History &
Linguistics from the University of Cape Town. Greg excels in academic writing
and finds artistic expression through drawing and painting in his free time.

Read more by Greg Beyer
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By Greg Beyer, in History
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A Dye for Kings: What Is Tyrian Purple?

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