merchant of purple cloth is a seller of purple in the bible.
merchant of purple cloth is a seller of purple in the bible.
what is a seller of purple in the bible?
merchant of purple cloth
“thyatira in the province of lydia (located in what is now western turkey) was famous for the red [variety of purple] dye”. lydia of thyatira is most known as a “seller” or merchant of purple cloth, which is the likely reason for the catholic church naming her “patroness of dyers.” it is unclear as to if lydia simply dealt in the trade of purple dye or whether her business included textiles as well, though all known icons of the saint depict her with some form of purple cloth. most portray this holy woman wearing a purple shawl or veil, which allows many historians and theologians to believe that she was a merchant of specifically purple cloth.
lydia of thyatira
returning to the stage, the sausage seller reports to the knights on his battle with cleon for control of the council – he has outbid cleon for the support of the councillors with offers of meals at the state's expense. indignant at his defeat, cleon rushes onto the stage and challenges the sausage-seller to submit their differences to demos. the sausage seller accepts the challenge. they call demos outdoors and compete with each other in flattering him like rivals for the affections of an eromenos. he agrees to hear them debating their differences and he takes up his position on the pnyx (here represented possibly as a bench). the sausage-seller makes some serious accusations in the first half of the debate: cleon is indifferent to the war-time sufferings of ordinary people, he has used the war as an opportunity for corruption and he prolongs the war out of fear that he will be prosecuted when peace returns. demos is won over by these arguments and he spurns cleon's wheedling appeals for sympathy. thereafter the sausage seller's accusations become increasingly absurd: cleon is accused of waging a campaign against buggery in order to stifle opposition (because all the best orators are buggers) and he is said to have brought down the price of silphium so that jurors who bought it would suffocate each other with their flatulence. cleon loses the debate but he doesn't lose hope and there are two further contests in which he competes with the sausage seller for demos's favour – a) the reading of oracles flattering to demos; b) a race to see which of them can best serve pampered demos's every need. the sausage seller wins each contest by outdoing cleon in shamelessness. cleon makes one last effort to retain his privileged position in the household – he possesses an oracle that describes his successor and he questions the sausage seller to see if he matches the description in all its vulgar details. the sausage seller does match the description. in tragic dismay, cleon at last accepts his fate and he surrenders his authority to the sausage-seller. demos asks the sausage seller for his name and we learn that it is agoracritus, confirming his lowly origin. the actors depart and the chorus treats us to another parabasis.
the knights