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Well Twitter, this is it, it’s our first #FreakyFriday of 2021!!!!!!
Tag us in all of your weird and wonderful history, make us tremble in fear or burst with laughter - anything goes!
Tag us in all of your weird and wonderful history, make us tremble in fear or burst with laughter - anything goes!
We’ll start:
The colour purple has long been associated with royalty, luxury, and wealth.
In the Byzantine Empire, tyrian purple dye was strictly limited to royal & noble families, who wore purple robes, used purple ink, and described their children as ‘born in the purple’. /1
The colour purple has long been associated with royalty, luxury, and wealth.
In the Byzantine Empire, tyrian purple dye was strictly limited to royal & noble families, who wore purple robes, used purple ink, and described their children as ‘born in the purple’. /1
In fact, the Sacred Palace, or the Great Palace of Constantinople, held a room with walls entirely lined with porphyry, a rare and highly valued purple stone. This ‘purple room’ was where empresses gave birth, and so their children were LITERALLY ‘born in the purple’! /2
Purple dye was so revered and sought after mainly because it was difficult to come by!
Some Roman Emperors actually forbid their citizens to wear purple by law, saving it for themselves, and to wear purple was punishable by death. /3
Some Roman Emperors actually forbid their citizens to wear purple by law, saving it for themselves, and to wear purple was punishable by death. /3
Yet for purple to be such a revered colour, the origins of purple dye are quite befitting of our #FreakyFriday fact!
You see tyrian purple came from the murex mollusc: /4
You see tyrian purple came from the murex mollusc: /4
More specifically, it came from the dehydrated mucus glands of said mollusc. These glands were located just behind the rectum of these bottom feeders.
It took hundreds of thousands of these snails to make just one ounce of usable dye (hence the rarity) /5
It took hundreds of thousands of these snails to make just one ounce of usable dye (hence the rarity) /5
And the process of extracting said dye was not only extremely long, but when we consider some of the words used above (namely mucus & rectum), I’m sure you can guess that the whole process absolutely REEKED!
Those in charge of extracting it had to have a VERY strong stomach /6
Those in charge of extracting it had to have a VERY strong stomach /6
So, next time you put on those purple socks, we hope you remember this thread and feel slightly uncomfortable!
