This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s summer editorial intern Connor Hanrahan. Find him on Instagram at @hannerhansmh. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
There are two types of people in this world: people who don’t really care about the color purple, and people who would die for it. No other color has such a diehard collection of zealots for a fandom. Sure, people who like yellow REALLY like yellow, but the odds of meeting somebody who loves the color purple that is obsessed with the color purple lies at a crisp clean 100%. Why is this? Why do people have such an affinity for the color besides the way it looks? We’re gonna do our very best to cover the history behind the color and the psychology of purple.
And yes, I would catch a grenade for purple.
Historical Introduction
Despite its appearances in Neolithic cave art, purple’s first integration into modern society came in the form of Syrian textiles. These were dated between 16-18 BCE.
Purple has always had clout to it. Not only are the hippest, chicest celebrities donning it in their outfits, but it actually used to be a symbol of power. This stigma and the etymology of the word ‘purple’ stem from the Greek word ‘porphura’, the name of the Tyrian purple dye used back then. The dye itself came from the mucus secreted by the spiny dye-murex snail.
Pretty gross stuff, but whatever, at least as I sit here in my purple Phoenix Mercury shirt writing this, I’m not wearing snail secretion. Despite how irking this may be, the production of the dye wiped out a whole snail population in Ancient Phoenecia, or modern day Lebanon.
“Mountains” of snail shells were found during the excavation of ancient sites in two Phoenecian coastal cities, Sidon and Tyre. The snails themselves were roughly the size of a thumb and some contained little to no secretion at all. A literal genocide of the dye-murex snails was required for Tyrian purple dye to be used commercially.
The actual production of the dye is where things get really interesting. They would soak the snails and then remove a tiny little gland that contained the secretion. The juice would be extracted from the gland and put in a basin. The basin would then be put in the sun where it would turn white, then yellow, then green, then purple, and then red. The juice had to be removed from sunlight at the exact right time during the process for the dye to be purple. It would then be used to dye the material.
Further east, China had also developed purple via the local ‘purple gromwell’ plant. It was viewed as a secondary color at the time and was not popular. The difficulty of producing the dye also made it too expensive for any common man to afford, lessening its popularity even further.
Notoriety and Power
This Tyrian shade of purple became symbolic of kings, nobles, priests and lords around the Mediterranean. At this point, Tyrian purple had already been mentioned in the Iliad of Homer and the Bible. Even Egyptian kings, Alexander the Great, and the basileus of the Seleucid Empire, modern day greater Middle East, wore the color.
For centuries after, purple made its way through the world as a symbol of power. Of course, some rulers retained their preferences, which were typically red, white, and navy blue at the time, but purple spread like wildfire because of its trade value.
Purple and Lavender Hazes
Jimi Hendrix loved the color purple. He sported it to some capacity at most of his shows but was particularly fond of a purple ascot. His song “Purple Haze” is often associated with the experience one has while using psychedelic drugs, though Hendrix insisted it was a love song. While purple haze is commonly associated with drug use, it can also refer to the aura of love and a bond, as Taylor Swift refers to it in her song ‘Lavender Haze’.
Some Other Facts
- Purple is the official color of ‘Pride’: one of the seven deadly sins.
- In Britain, purple is sometimes associated with mourning. Though, this practice was more popular in Victorian times.
- Purple was frequently worn by the Catholic liturgy in Latin America. The shape of their purple hooded stoles were later recycled by the KKK, but in white.
- The idiom ‘Purple prose’ refers to pretentious or overly embellished writing.
- Purple is often thought of as a characteristic of quality marijuana during the early hippie movements. This wives’ tale kind of disappeared when dispensaries started selling marijuana recreationally.
Why Do People Love It So Much
The quick and easy answer is that people like the way purple clothing looks on them or they love what it stands for. It’s easy to get lost in clout and the chase of fame and notoriety, and purple often embodies the light at the end of that tunnel. However, some people just like it because they enjoy the way it looks. I, for one, just like the way it looks.
What do you think? Do you know something about purple that I didn’t mention? Let me know in the comments below!
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