City of the Violet Crown is a term for at least two cities,
Athens, Greece and
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
.
Athens, Greece
In one of his surviving fragments (fragment 76), the lyric poet
Pindar
Pindar (; grc-gre, Πίνδαρος , ; la, Pindarus; ) was an Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian wrote, "Of the nine lyric poets, Pindar ...
wrote of Athens:
The climate of
Attica
Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean S ...
is characterised by low humidity and a high percentage of dust in the air, which make sunsets display hues of violet and purple and the surrounding mountains often appear immersed in a purple haze. In
Geoffrey Trease
(Robert) Geoffrey Trease FRSL (11 August 1909 – 27 January 1998) was a prolific British writer who published 113 books, mainly for children, between 1934 and 1997, starting with '' Bows Against the Barons'' and ending with ''Cloak for a Spy'' ...
's novel, ''The Crown of Violet'', the name is explained as referring to the
mauve
Mauve (, ; , ) is a pale purple color named after the mallow flower (French: ''mauve''). The first use of the word ''mauve'' as a color was in 1796–98 according to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', but its use seems to have been rare befo ...
-tinted marble of the
Acropolis hill.
Austin, Texas
According to the
City of Austin's History Center, the phrase first appeared in ''The Austin Daily Statesman'' (now ''The Austin American Statesman'') on May 5, 1890.
It was long believed to have originated in
O. Henry's story "Tictocq: The Great French Detective, In Austin", published in his collection of short stories ''The Rolling Stone'' published October 27, 1894. In chapter 2 of ''Tictocq'', O. Henry writes:
The phrase is generally thought to refer to the atmospheric phenomenon more commonly known as the
Belt of Venus
The Belt of Venus (also called Venus's Girdle, the antitwilight arch, or antitwilight) is an atmospheric phenomenon visible shortly before sunrise or after sunset, during civil twilight. It is a pinkish glow that surrounds the observer, extend ...
. The phrase is also said to be connected to the
moonlight tower
A moonlight tower or moontower is a lighting structure designed to illuminate areas of a town or city at night.
The towers were popular in the late 19th century in cities across the United States and Europe; they were most common in the 1880s and ...
s of Austin.
Another explanation is that, during the 19th century, residents began to call Austin the "Athens of the South" for its university. With his sly reference to the poetry of Pindar, O. Henry may have been satirizing Austin's ambitious claim of a cultural link to ancient Athens.
References
External links
Text of ''Tictocq''
{{Nuttall
History of Athens
History of Austin, Texas
O. Henry