Mystical Nature of Olive Oil

The Mediterranean world has regarded the olive as sacred for thousands of years. In many religions and cultures throughout history, the olive tree is very symbolic. It represents peace, life, and fertility. Ebla, the first civilization to use olive oil, offered the golden oil to their gods. Later, the ancient Egyptians thought that they learned olive cultivation and wisdom from the goddess Isis. The Greeks believed that Athena, the goddess of wisdom, won a contest between the gods for presenting the most useful gift, and was able to give it to humanity.

In Ancient Greece, athletes used olive oil to rub over their bodies. The first Olympic torch was a burning olive branch. The Bible is brimming with 140 references to olive oil, from the parable of the wise and foolish virgins (oil as lamp fuel) to the story of the Good Samaritan (oil as unguent) to the Prophet Elisha's rescue of the destitute widow (oil as item of trade).

The Koran and Hadith also mention the value of olive oil. Today the king of Saudi Arabia gives it as a traditional gift to pilgrims to Mecca. The use of olive oil is part of many religions, cultures, special ceremonies and as a general health measure. During baptism in the Christian church anoints with holy olive oil. At the Chrism mass olive oil, blessed by the bishop, "chrism", is used. Like the grape, the Christian missionaries brought the olive tree with them to California for food but also for ceremonial use. Olive oil anointed the early kings of the Greeks and Jews, winning athletes and the dead in many cultures.

The cultivation of the olive trees is one of the oldest signs of civilization in the world. It even preceded writing. The olive culture, derived from the benefits of olive oil, and the mythology linked to it spread through the Phoenicians to Greece, and from Greece to Rome, and then to the rest of the Western world. The olive was a native to Asia Minor and spread from Iran, Syria and Palestine to the rest of the Mediterranean basin 6,000 years ago. It is one of the oldest known cultivated trees in the world. By 3,000 B.C., olive oil was in Crete and may have been the source of wealth for the Minoan kingdom. The Phoenicians spread the olive to the Mediterranean shores of Africa and Southern Europe. Olives are found in Egyptian tombs from 2000 years BC. The olive culture spread to the early Greeks then Romans. As the Romans extended their domain, they brought the olive with them.

Olive trees have a long life. Some live 1000 years or even longer. Even when its trunk and branches may die, the olive tree sprouts once again bringing life into a new tree. This longevity creates an air that seems to filter through the branches of the olive tree. In the past few hundred years, the growth of olive oil has spread to the Americas, Japan, Australia, and South Africa. Nevertheless, until this day around 99 percent of all olive oil still spills from the rim of the Mediterranean. Ancestral devotion to the olive tree has carried down to later generations converting many into olive oil aficionados.