Liquid gold: olive oil

Homer claimed in his writings that the ancient olive tree growing in Athens was already 10,000 years old. He also stated that destroying an olive tree was prohibited and any such action would be viewed as capital punishment by the Greek court.

Throughout the history of the Mediterranean, the olive was a symbol of wealth, fame and peace. It played a fundamental role in culture, the arts, trade, technology and the economy. There are myths and legends abound romanticizing the powers of this “Liquid Gold” as it was referred to by Homer in the Iliad. Olive oil was a basic staple in daily life with the olive and its oil being a major part of the diet.

Believing olive oil possessed natural healing powers, Hippocrates was the first known medical practitioner to use olive oil based ointments to treat wounds and traumas. By the Middle Ages, olive oil continued to reveal new curative properties as it became a well-known remedy for sore throats, cuts and bruises.

Later, olive wreaths were awarded as prizes at the Olympic Games. Athletes coated their bodies with olive oil, and Panathenaic Games winners were awarded many large, valuable jars of olive oil.

From Minoan frescoes and jars to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, ancient mythology, Aesop’s fables, Solon’s laws, Aristotle’s writings, the laws and games of classical Greece, and religion past and present, the olive tree and its oil have been prominent.

 

“Olive oil” is now more popular than ever, thanks to its many proven health benefits and its culinary usefulness. This oil is a central and distinguishing component of the Mediterranean diet, one of the healthiest diets around the world. Moreover, it's a diet that was declared an Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in 2012.

Pablo Neruda, one of the most important writers of the 20th century. as Gabriel García Márquez declared, wrote  the Ode to olive tree:

Near the murmuring

In the grain fields, of the waves

Of wind in the oat-stalks,

 

The olive tree

 

With its silver-covered mass

Severe in its lines

In its twisted

Heart in the earth:

The graceful  Olives

Polished

By the hands Which made The dove

And the oceanic Snail,

Green,

Innumerable, Immaculate Nipples Of nature

And there

In

The dry Olive groves

Where

So alone

The sky, blue with cicadas

And the hard earth Exist,

There

The prodigy ,The perfect Capsules

Of the olives

Filling

With their constellations, the foliage:

Then later,

The bowls,

The miracle,

The olive oil.

I love

The homelands of olive oil,

The olive groves

Of Chacabuco, in Chile,

In the morning

Feathers of platinum

Forests of them

Against the wrinkled

Mountain ranges.

In Anacapri, up above,

Over the light of the Italian sea

Is the despair of olive trees,

And on the map of Europe, Spain

A black basketful of olives

Dusted off by orange blossoms

As if by a sea breeze.

There are syllables of olive oil

There are words

Useful and rich-smelling

Like your fragrant material.

It’s not only wine that sings

Olive oil sings too,

It lives in us with its ripe light

And among the good things of the earth

I set apart

Olive oil,

Your ever-flowing peace, your green essence,

Your heaped-up treasure

Which descends

In streams from the olive tree.