Beginning in about
1500 BC, the citizens of
Sidon and
Tyre, the citizens of two cities on the coast of Ancient
Phoenicia, (present day Lebanon), began to exploit a remarkable new source of purple; a sea snail called the
spiny dye-murex. This deep, rich purple dye made from this snail became known as
Tyrian purple, or
imperial purple.
.....
Tyrian purple became the color of kings, nobles, priests and magistrates all around the Mediterranean. It was mentioned in the Old Testament; In the
Book of Exodus, God instructs
Moses to have the Israelites bring him an offering including cloth "of blue, and purple, and scarlet."
The term used for purple in the 4th century
Latin Vulgate version of the Bible passage is
purpura or Tyrian purple.
[17] In the
Iliad of
Homer, the belt of
Ajax is purple, and the tails of the horses of Trojan warriors are dipped in purple. In the
Odyssey, the blankets on the wedding bed of
Odysseus are purple. In the poems of
Sappho (6th century BC) she celebrates the skill of the dyers of the Greek kingdom of
Lydia who made purple footware, and in the play of
Aeschylus (525–456 BC), Queen
Clytemnestra welcomes back her husband
Agamemnon by decorating the palace with purple carpets. In the
Bible, it was described the color worn by the priests of
Yahweh. In 950 BC,
King Solomon was reported to have to have brought artisans from Tyre to provide purple fabrics to decorate the
Temple of Jerusalem
