the legend of Olive

Olive tree and Olive oil is considered something that has a great value. The people from the ancient time used the product from the Olive, its fruit, its Oil, Its leaves, and also Its wood. we use is oil as the raw material for cosmetics and medicine. We use the oil also for soap, and to be used for hair. We also used the oil for cooking.

in ancient time, people used the oil for lighting, and in ancient Olympic it was used for the Olympic flames. And the victor from the games is crowned with its Leaves. as a symbol of abundance, glory, and peace.

beside these usefulness from ancient times. there's also a legend about the olive.

in ancient Greek, it was said that the god Zeus wanted to give the Peninsula of Attica to God or Goddess that could give him a valuable Present, thus He made a competition. And then Appeared two gods The Goddess Athena, goddess of Wisdom and the God Posseidon, the god of the sea, thus the two Gods compete each other to bring valuable present for Zeus. the God Posseidon brandish hi trident on a rock (said it was a sacred rock) and came horse from the rock, the horse was a warhorse able to carry men to battle and draw chariots. While the Goddess Athena Struck Her Sper into the ground, and the spear turned into an Olive Tree. in the end The Goddess Athena won the competition, since her present is considered the valuable present for mankind.

it was not stop there it was said because of the defeat Poseidon became frustrated and leaved Attica without water and this made the people angry at him. moreover Poseidon's son also angry because of his father defeat and decided to cut down the Olive tree with an axe. in the moment that he raised the axe it just happened that the axe was turned against him miraculously and killed Him.

because of Her winning Athena became the protector of Attica and a city with her name.

in the bible it is said in the account of Noah when The Lord punished the whole earth with water that Noah's ark rested in mount Ararat. but to make sure that the Earth was already dried he decided to release dove, but it returned soon, then He released Raven but it did not Return, and lastly He released dove, and the Dove returned with Fresh Olive leaves in its mouth, in seeing this he know that the earth was already dry. and He opened the ark and all his family and the animals inside the earth came out of the ark.

The Romans gave the title to Olive as the prima omnium arborum, meaning the first of all tree. surely from the stories above we can know how how precious and valuable is the olive.

sources:
wikipedia
oliveoilmani
gemlikzeytini