The life of the Greeks is closely attached from ancient years with the olive tree and its products.
In order to explain the origins of the olive tree and the olive oil they created lots of myths:
• The gift of the goddess Athena: according to this myth, the goddess Athena gave as a gift the first olive tree to humans, which was planted at the sacred hill of Acropolis.
• The protector of the olive growers: Aristeos, son of the god Apollo, was the specialist in warding off tree diseases and taught people how to graft the wild olive trees so that they yield more olives as well as how to break the olives in order to extract the precious but still unknown olive oil.
• The protector of olive oil: Elaida, the grand-daughter of the god Dionysus, had the magical ability to produce olive oil from earth while during the war of Troy she would supply the Trojans with as much olive oil they would need during their siege from the Greeks.
• Hercules: According to the tradition, Hercules planted the sacred olive tree in Olympia. From its branches, the wreathes were made, with which they crowned the winners of the Olympic Games.
