The cynic, Menippos, however, when making his round through Thebes, in the costume of a Fury, wore a broad-brimmed Arcadian hat, on which were represented the twelve signs of the zodiac.[[1356]] Among the Macedonians, who in all things affected magnificence, the hats of the courtiers and nobles were purple,[[1357]] like the tiara of the Persians,[[1358]] which, however, was furnished with side-flaps, resembling a peacock’s wings. The most common material was felt, though they were likewise made of leather. Caps were ordinarily manufactured of dog, or sheep, or lamb skin.[[1359]]
But if in some of these branches of the useful arts the Greeks approached, and, perhaps, equalled, the moderns, in another they probably excelled them; I mean in dyeing,[[1360]] more particularly, that deep crimson, or purple, of which Greek and Roman authors so often speak with an admiration bordering on rapture. Winkelmann[[1361]] is not far wrong in supposing there were two kinds of purple, the one containing a tinge of violet, or sea-blue, produced at Tarentum,[[1362]] the other resembling our lake, known in antiquity as Tyrian dye. On the origin of this colour the ancients had many legends (for they loved to build a mythos on what they could not explain), from among which we shall select the most poetical. The Tyrian Heracles loved, they say, a nymph, who dwelt somewhere about the sea-coast, and her name, it is added, was Tyros. In visiting this young lady, Heracles, according to the custom of the heroic age, was accompanied by his dog, as we find Telemachos, in the Odyssey. This same dog, not having love to support him, grew hungry by the way, and espying a purple fish upon a rock, with its head protruding from the shell, he seized, and devoured it. On Heracles reaching the residence of the nymph, she observed the muzzle of the animal dyed of a bright purple, and, in the style of a froward beauty, declared she would never again see her lover until he brought her a dress of that colour. Now this hero, as all the world knows, or may learn from the comic poets, was always more remarkable for courage and gluttony than for invention. Love, however, on the present occasion, sharpened his wits. He discovered the fish, turned dyer, and, having produced such an article as the lady required, had the honour of being esteemed the inventor of the Tyrian purple.[[1363]]
The writer to whom we are indebted for this fable, which he related for the amusement of Commodus, has preserved a valuable account of the purple fishery as carried on by the Phœnicians. They fastened, he observes,[[1364]] a number of small bell-formed baskets, at regular distances, to a long, stout, and tough cable, capable of resisting the action of the sea. These baskets, like the eel-traps of modern times, were surrounded at the mouth with a circle of slender twigs[[1365]] projecting inward, and almost meeting at the centre, resembling the bottom of a claret bottle, but with an opening through which the fish could easily force its way in, though the twigs closing with a spring behind it prevented its egress. To entice the prey, there was a bait in the basket, which, according to some, was a cockle, according to others, a frog, upon a hook,[[1366]] so that assurance was made doubly sure. All things thus prepared, the fisherman conveyed the apparatus to a rocky part of the shore, where they let it down, having previously fastened to it a strong cord with a piece of cork at the end, that they might be able to discover and pull it up. Leaving their traps there all night and all the ensuing day, they generally took up the basket full. Then, pounding both shell and flesh together, to prepare it for dyeing they cleansed away all impurities with water, and boiled the whole in a cauldron. The blood, being of an oily nature, melted on coming in contact with the heat and acquired its rich colour. Not always did it assume the same tint, but was sometimes yellow, sometimes a deep violet, and, occasionally, some other shade. Into this whatever was dipped immediately took the tincture of it. Nor did it all fade in the sun; but, on the contrary, rejoiced in the rays of light, as it were, its brightness imparting additional brilliance, and heightening the bloom and splendour of its tints.[[1367]]
Wherever, and by whomsoever, discovered, the purple was known in the time of Moses, who introduced it into the costume of the high priest, and among the ornaments of the tabernacle.[[1368]] Homer,[[1369]] too, speaks of purple among the colours worn by his heroes, for example, a large purple pelisse. Iris is denominated “purple;” we have mention, also, of a “purple cloak, of a purple ball wherewith to play;” “purple coverings,” of great beauty, for beds, or seats; “purple carpets;” “purple threads,” where the “sea-purple” is distinctly spoken of.[[1370]] Again, in another part of the Odyssey, we find it said, that women wove the “purple cloaks.”[[1371]] The President Goguet has entered into many useful investigations respecting the manner in which the Tyrian dye was used; but at the outset confounds the conchyliatæ vestes with the purple garments, though Pliny, on whom he chiefly relies, constantly distinguishes them. The dye was obtained from several kinds of shell-fish[[1372]] found in the Mediterranean, the best on the island on which New Tyre was built.[[1373]] Aristotle, who of all the ancients has best described the purple fish, observes, that there were several species, of which some were of considerable size, such as those caught near Sigeion and Lecton; while those found on the coast of Caria and in the Euripos were small. Generally, he says, such as inhabited bays or arms of the sea were large and rough, and contained a liquid of blackish hue, though sometimes it was reddish, and small in quantity. Some of these were a mina, or about seventeen ounces, in weight. Those caught close along shores, or about headlands were usually of small size, but the dye they yielded was of a ruddier tinge. In general, too, it was thought that those found on northern coasts produced a darker, those on southern coasts a ruddier dye.[[1374]] Purple fisheries were carried on on the coast of Africa, near the island of Menninx, and on the shores of Getulia.[[1375]] So, likewise, in Europe,[[1376]] on the coast of Laconia,[[1377]] whose purple was greatly celebrated; in the Euripos, as we have seen above;[[1378]] and in the terrible southern bend of Eubœa, beneath the cliffs of Mount Caphareus.[[1379]] An inferior kind of purple was obtained from the buccinum,[[1380]] but the genuine dye was produced by the calchè alone. The colour was contained in a white vein about the neck, the remainder of the fish being of no value. To secure, this, however, it was necessary to take the fish alive, for at its death the colour fled. Having been carefully collected, and left to macerate in salt[[1381]] during three days, it was mixed with a certain quantity of water. The whole was then boiled for ten days in leaden boilers over a slow fire.[[1382]] After this the wool well washed, cleansed and properly prepared, was dipped into it. Here it was allowed to soak during five hours. It was then taken out, dried, carded, and thrown back, where it was suffered to remain till it imbibed the whole of the dye.[[1383]] To this double-dyed purple the poets often allude. Thus Horace:
Te bis Afro
Murice tinctæ
Vestiunt Lanæ.[[1384]]
And again where the Phœnician operation is spoken of:
Muricibus Tyriis iteratæ vellera lanæ
Cui properabantur?[[1385]]