Why Olive Oil Anoints Kings and Athletes Alike
To be ‘anointed’ is, literally, to be marked with olive oil. The same humble oil has crowned kings, consecrated priests and slicked the bodies of athletes — one gesture, many meanings.
The oil of kings and priests
In the ancient Near East, pouring olive oil over the head set a person apart for a sacred role. Hebrew kings and priests were anointed; the words Messiah and Christ both mean ‘the anointed one.’ Oil was precious, fragrant and life-giving — the natural substance for marking someone as chosen. The custom still survives in coronations today.
The oil of athletes
The Greeks took the same oil to the gym. Athletes rubbed their bodies with olive oil before training and competition, then scraped it off with a tool called a strigil. It cleaned, protected the skin from sun and dust, and made the body gleam — vigour and beauty in a bottle. Victors were crowned with olive wreaths, oiled and garlanded by the same tree.
Sacred and athletic, royal and everyday — olive oil touched all of it because it was all of it: food, light, medicine, soap and ceremony from a single plant. To anoint with olive oil was simply to bless someone with the most valuable, life-sustaining thing a Mediterranean people had.
A olives101 note on olive culture.