The silver coins from these olive cities were proudly minted with olive tree motifs to celebrate their source of income. The ancient economy depended so heavily on olive oil that some ancient cities revolved around producing it, growing wealthy for the oil they exported. The Greeks, ever wanting for more of their precious olive oil, imported it greedily. At the time, Greece was the largest consumer of olive oil in the world.
The Greeks also used olive oil in religious rites, such as funerals, and used it as an offering to the gods.Īround 800 B.C.E., olives were cultivated widely by the ancient Greeks, and by 600 B.C.E., the Phoenicians traded their oil industriously. According to legend, this tree and the oil its olives could produce was the gift that won Athena a contest to rule the city, which was then named in her honor. To this day, an olive tree still stands in Athens, at the Acropolis, which was said to have been planted by the goddess Athena. The symbolism of the olive as a sign of peace was also shared by the Ancient Greeks. It wasn't only the Abrahamic religions that placed such importance on olive oil, either. Olives, olive trees, and olive oil are also mentioned in several other Bible passages, in the Jewish Hebrew Bible, and the Christian Old and New Testaments. Perhaps the most notable reference is in the book of Genesis, in which Noah's sign of the great flood starting to abate was a dove carrying a freshly plucked olive leaf. In biblical times, the trees were seen as symbols of peace and unity. Jews and Christians alike will doubtless recognize olives from their mentions in religious scripture. But olive oil was already old long before the Greeks and Romans appeared. After the Roman Empire arose, they cultivated olives in places like Libya and Syria. The oil was traded extensively between city-states and nations, and spread by cultures like the Greeks and the Phoenicians. Thousands of years ago, in the classical world, growing olives and pressing them for oil was a booming industry. The history of olives and their oil is long and storied.
As with many of the most widely eaten food ingredients, the reason why olive oil is consumed so widely and in such large amounts is that humans have been using it for an exceptionally long time. It's so widely enjoyed that over 3 million tons of olive oil are produced every year, with most being produced by countries like Greece, Morocco, Italy, and Turkey - although Spain is by far the world's largest olive oil producer. Ubiquitously available all across Europe, the Maghreb, and the Middle East, olive oil is an essential component of cuisines originating from around the Mediterranean Sea, from Spain to Palestine.
0 kommentar(er)
