“In Phoenician mythology, the discovery of purple was credited to the pet dog of Tyros, the mistress of Tyre’s patron god Melqart. One day, while walking along the beach the couple noticed that after biting on a washed up mollusc the dog’s mouth was stained purple. Tyros asked for a garment made of the same colour and so began the famous dyeing industry”.
https://www.worldhistory.org/Tyrian_Purple/
Pity the poor artisan who very quickly discovered how many snails it would take to fulfill the request.
Hopefully he was later enriched by the demands of the elite (rather than enslaved).