The Olive: Food of the Gods
Long before the olive was a snack or a cooking oil, it was holy. Civilisations crowned their champions with it, lit their temples with it, and told founding myths around it. Here is why the olive earned the title ‘food of the gods’ — and why the claim is older than almost anything.
No other fruit is so tightly wound into the human story. The olive was domesticated in the eastern Mediterranean thousands of years ago, and from the very start it was treated less as a crop than as a gift from the divine. One modest, drought-hardy tree gave food, cooking oil, lamp fuel, wood, medicine and a symbol — an abundance that ancient people could only explain as a blessing. That is the real root of the phrase ‘food of the gods’: not poetry after the fact, but the plain gratitude of societies whose whole way of life leaned on a single evergreen tree.
Athena’s gift
The Greeks told it best. When Athena and Poseidon contested the city that would become Athens, Poseidon struck the rock and gave a spring of seawater; Athena planted an olive tree. The gods judged the olive the greater gift — food, oil, light, wood and medicine, all from one plant — and the city took her name. The olive trees on the Acropolis were held sacred, and to harm one was a serious crime. Strip away the myth and a hard economic truth remains: a city that could grow, press and trade olive oil held a genuine source of wealth and power.
Oil for victors, gods and kings
Olive oil anointed Olympic champions and was poured over the heads of kings; the very word for the anointed carries that gleam of oil. It burned in temple lamps and humble household ones alike — the original light of the Mediterranean night. And the branch became the universal sign of peace, and still is: a dove with an olive branch, a hand extended in truce. We did not so much invent that symbol as inherit it, worn smooth by three thousand years of use.
Older than the myths themselves
Here is the humbling part. The oldest living olive trees were already ancient when those myths were first told. The gnarled tree of Vouves in Crete, still fruiting after some three to four thousand years, was standing before Athena and Poseidon were ever written down. When we drizzle oil on bread we are not starting a tradition — we are joining one already unimaginably old, repeating the simplest blessing the Mediterranean knows.
| Domesticated | Eastern Mediterranean, several thousand years ago |
|---|---|
| From one tree | Food, oil, lamp fuel, timber, medicine |
| Greek myth | Athena’s olive wins the founding of Athens |
| Sacred use | Anointing of victors and kings; temple lamps |
| Enduring symbol | The olive branch as the sign of peace |
| Living witness | Millennia-old trees such as Vouves, Crete |
- The olive was sacred before it was culinary — a divine gift, not just a crop.
- One tree gave food, oil, light, wood and medicine — hence the reverence.
- The olive branch of peace is an inheritance, not a modern invention.
- The oldest trees predate the myths that tried to explain them.
The olive as food of the gods: common questions
Why was the olive called food of the gods?
Because one hardy tree gave food, oil, light, wood and medicine — an abundance ancient peoples treated as a divine gift rather than an ordinary crop.
What is the myth of Athena and the olive?
Athena and Poseidon contested Athens; she planted an olive tree, judged the greater gift, and the city took her name. Its Acropolis olives were held sacred.
Why is the olive branch a symbol of peace?
It descends from ancient Mediterranean use, where the branch signalled truce and goodwill — an image we still use in the dove and olive branch.
Was olive oil really used to anoint people?
Yes. It anointed Olympic champions and kings and burned in temple lamps — practical uses that carried deep ceremonial weight.
How old are the oldest olive trees?
Some, like the tree of Vouves in Crete, are estimated at three to four thousand years old — older than the myths written about the olive.
I find it humbling that something I spent twenty years buying and selling by the tonne was, for the people who first grew it, holy. The oldest living olive trees were already ancient when those myths were written down — we are very late to a very old story. So next time you pour a little oil over bread, remember you are repeating a gesture older than almost everything: the simplest blessing the Mediterranean knows.
Drawn from Greek mythology, the history of Mediterranean olive culture, and the record of the ancient trees still living today.