Quick note: the article states that some tellings of the myth behind the dye say that Hercules did it. Actually, that was (probably) a case of interpretatio graeca, in which the Greeks identified Heracles with the Canaanite Melqart, “King of the City,” and then the Romans did their own interpretatio romana.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpretatio_graeca

Tyrian purple can and should be extracted from live snails not crushed dead ones. You pluck them off a rock, poke them with a stick, they spit dye on to your skein, and you put them back, annoyed, but ready to make more. This is how it's done in America. I don't know what's wrong with Europeans that they can't figure this out.

Interesting history here on the natural origins of purple and blue pigments. Beautiful art references.

More details on purple and other colors in Ancient Rome:

https://exhibitions.kelsey.lsa.umich.edu/ancient-color/index...