'Red may have been purple in antiquity as the Greeks had a very different conception of colour to ours. For instance they had no word for true blue. Was Clytemnestra's carpet purple, or was it crimson? Was the imperial purple, in fact, red? Let us believe that Clytemnestra wove a crimson carpet for Agamemnon - blood red with a touch of blue in the blood. When he stepped on this first red carpet, he committed the sin of hubris - and was murdered. Red carpets lead to assessination. Revolutions die in their own red. Have you ever stepped on a red carpet? Felt the pomp and circumstance? Before it was pulled from under your feet? Red betrays.'
Derek Jarman (2000), Chroma: a book of colour - June '93. London: Vintage, p. 38
