Tyrian Purple
Snails and urine: fit for an emperor. (The Bus 5.26)
Welcome aboard The Bus!
THURSDAY ARCHIVE EDITION - FIRST PUBLISHED (1.16) 30 MAY 2022
The Stop
Tyrian purple, named after the Phoenician city of Tyre1 where it was first produced in the fifteenth century BCE, was the product of two species of sea snails native to the Mediterranean.2 Cracking open their shells and squeezing the mollusc’s mucus-producing hypobranchial gland released a ‘single drop of clear liquid, smelling of garlic.’ Exposed to light, the liquid turned pale yellow, then sea green, and then blue until finally becoming a highly prized dark purple-red. It is estimated that around 250,000 snails were required to produce a single ounce of the colour.
Setting the colour to fabric required ammonia, so the snail mucus was placed into vats of stale urine. After ten days’ fermentation, the fabric to be dyed would be added to the mixture and soaked until the colour set. Unlike other textile colours which faded rapidly, Tyrian purple actually intensified with weathering and wear. This was considered a ‘miraculous’ quality that - in addition to the huge amount of labour involved in producing the dye - made it exorbitantly expensive and available only to the wealthiest individuals.3
In Republican Rome, the exclusive and prohibitively expensive colour became associated with power and royalty and was tightly controlled: ‘Triumphant generals could wear a purple and gold robe; those in the field, plain purple. Senators, consuls and praetors … wore a broad Tyrian band on their togas; knights a narrow band.’ However, when Julius Caesar returned to Rome from Egypt,4 he brought with him a toga in Tyrian purple that only he was allowed to wear. Successive rulers began limiting who was allowed to wear the colour to the degree that by the fourth century CE, only the emperor could wear it; anyone else caught wearing purple could be put to death.
Tyrian purple production declined over the centuries and the secrets to its manufacture disappeared with the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453. It was 400 years before the snails and their purple excretions were rediscovered - in 1856, the year that mauve - another shade of purple - was invented.
The Detour
Today’s Detour is to an article about Mo Pinel - a highly influential bowling ball designer. Seriously, it’s worth a read.
One Man's Amazing Journey to the Center of the Bowling Ball
The Recommendation
Today’s book is Jeff Noon’s Vurt (1993). Set in an alternate version of Manchester, England, the novel’s setting is one in which reality and unreality are blended, warped, buckled and contorted via a drug and/or computer programme ingested by putting a coloured feather into the mouth. Different coloured feathers equate to different types of trips and - because occasionally when one enters the Vurt world things from that world are exchanged with this one - some feathers are highly illegal.
From the back: ‘A brilliantly innovative and highly entertaining novel … a wholly modern voice with refreshing insight into the desperation of young life in the inner cities …. [The] characters’ powerful desire for escape is mirrored in the compulsive and often disturbing dream-worlds they visit in their relentless search for fulfilment - taking you on a strange and wonderful journey, littered with curious and addictive Vurt feathers.’
I checked this out from my local library in 1993 - and have since recommended it to maybe seven people. The plot is odd, disturbing, funny, shocking, seedy - and possibly all a dream, fantasy or drug-induced trip. Or possibly not - which makes it even more unsettling. It’s not for everyone, but if it sounds remotely interesting I’d suggest giving it a try - and let me know what you think!
Here is an interesting 2013 interview with the author: The Guardian: Jeff Noon
The Sounds
After the heavy dose of Floyd in last Thursday’s issue of The Bus, these five tracks are more I’m-in-the-car-and-thankfully-no-one-can-hear-me-singing friendly:5 ‘Good as Hell’ (Lizzo, 2019), ‘My House’ (Flo Rida, 2015), ‘Steal My Sunshine’ (LEN, 1999), ‘Party in The U.S.A.’ (Miley Cyrus, 2009), and ‘777-9311’ (The Time, 1982). Enjoy!
The Thought
Staying with the colour theme of today’s Stop, the Thought is a quote from the English polymath and art critic John Ruskin (1819-1900):6
“The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love colour the most.”
If you have a thought on this Thought - or any part of today’s issue - please leave a comment below:
And that’s the end of this stop - I hope you enjoyed a brief diversion from your regular journey!
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Until the next stop …
Located on the southern coast of Lebanon, Tyre is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world (see: Tyre). References to Tyrian purple are found in Homer’s Iliad (ca. 8th century BCE) and Virgil’s Aeneid (ca. 30-19 BCE). The source material for this Stop is St. Clair, Kassia. The Secret Lives of Colour. London: John Murray, 2016 and Tyrian Purple: The disgusting origins of the colour purple (Tyrian Purple)
For anyone interested, these are specifically Thais haemastoma and Murex brandaris.
Who stank. Like, really stank. The snail excretion is evidently rank, and when mixed with fermented urine … well, there’s a reason dyeworks in the ancient world were usually built well out of town. The Roman philosopher (among many other things) Pliny the Elder (CE 23-49), who believed the best shade of Tyrian was tinged with black, placed the smell somewhere between rotting shellfish and garlic. For a brief bio of this guy, see: Pliny the Elder.
Where’d he’d been hanging out and eventually fathering a son with Cleopatra; it appears Tyrian purple was his lady’s favourite colour.
The Lizzo track is straight up brilliant, I defy anyone to decline an invitation to hang out at Flo Rida’s house, the LEN track is pure summer and Miley Cyrus’s earworm namechecks both Britney Spears and Jay-Z. As for The Time … well, I loved them when I was 13. Granted, some of their songs were much better than others, but its infectious mix of innuendo and outright raunch meant that ‘777-9311’ was a number I was desperate to call.
A fascinating exploration of imperial purple, Bryan - I loved this ride on the bus today!
One of mum's fellow textile artist friend's young son went to school one day and told everyone 'my wee turns wool blue!' His mum had been making indigo dye from woad growing in her garden, and certain chemicals were needed - ones which are present in the urine of prepubescent males.
I wonder what she created with the resulting dark blue yarn? And whether the garment's wearer knew quite how the colour had been achieved....?!