Greek Traditions

The culture of olive oil

The presence of the olive has been widely noted throughout prehistoric times.

Professors of history and archeology, with research still in progress, have presented olive tree fossils found on Greek soil which have an impressive age of 50,000-60,000 years, while samples of olive pollen found in the western Peloponnese have been accurately estimated to date back 2,000 years. The olive tree and its fruit have never abandoned Greece since then. Starting from the Minoan and Mycenaean years, a number of finds in the major olive groves of Greece, the Peloponnese, Crete, on the Ionian islands and Cycladic Islands, as well as in Cyprus and elsewhere, confirm the consistent and ancient presence of this tree on Greek land: for example, large olive oil storehouses and jars in Mycenaean Pylos, dozens of Linear A and B tablets with the characteristic ideograph of an olive tree and murals with olive trees at Knossos. And Homer, the poet of the ancients, says of the olive tree that it is powerful, long-leaved, sacred, and fragrant is its oil.

Furthermore, during classical times, the beautiful legend of the competition between Athena and Poseidon ends with the proclamation of the olive tree as the sacred tree of the city of Athens. The great significance of the olive tree continues throughout the archaic period of Greek history, but also throughout the Roman period.

The direct and early integration of olive oil within the Christian religious tradition is notable, while the olive cultivation and production continued strongly through the latter Byzantine years. During the period of Turkish occupation, the olive tree and its oil continued to play a leading role in trade and everyday life of the subject Greeks, while Kolokotroni’s lament over Ibrahim Pasha’s tactic of burning olive trees is moving. “the soulless trees do not oppose anyone”.

Lastly, the liberated Hellenic State, from the first stages of its establishment up to this day, has greatly supported its economy with the trade of olive oil and the olive continues to play a dominant role in modern Greek culture. Thus, the linguists must forgive us for this mis-etymology: The name Hellas indeed seems to derive from the word olive (Helia).

Greek culture: “Baptized” in oil

The olive and olive oil have been consistently present throughout the years, a part of Greek private and collective life: religion, art, social and political events, sports, physics and gastronomy. The exuberant presence of olive oil trees and their fruits are encountered in all aspects of everyday life in Greece.

Thus, from the golden leaves in the shape of an olive branch that were found buried in a Minoan tomb, and the aromatic olive oil production workshops found in the wider region around the palaces of King Nestor of Pylos, to the orthodox vigil candle that burns olive oil in Greek households today, the olive tree and its oil are everpresent. Christ prays on the Mount of Olives, and the Orthodox religion closely connects two of its seven mysteries (sacraments) to oil, the Baptism and the Extreme unction, whilst Anointing Oil is made with olive oil.

Kostis Palamas, the poet, characteristically wrote:”I am the honored olive”. Greek literature from Homer to Elytis and Ritsos has been constantly inspired by the olive, while the graphic arts depicted the tree, its fruit and its cultivation in various ways, from ancient murals to modern paintings. But the olive is also present in sports activities: the naked bodies of ancient athletes were anointed with oil, the winners of Olympic games were crowned with the famous wreath of wild olive leaves, the champions of the Panathenaic Games were awarded with amphorae containing something… more than just olive oil produced during the year, while the 2004 Olympic Games were symbolized by a wreath of olive leaves. Lastly, Greeks used olive oil in their everyday lives as a means of therapy, personal decoration, lighting – let us not forget that the oil lamp is the ancestor of the electrical lamp of today – and, naturally, as the nutritional product that prevailed on their dinner tables.

Source: http://www.messinia.gr