plant
Olive
The Mediterranean tree of oil and civic prize. Athena’s gift in Athenian story is one local aetiology, not a pan-Mediterranean oil theology.
Also known as olive tree
Hellenic religion
Olive appears in Athens.
The olive is Attic agriculture and prize. Pausanias walks a landscape of trees and cult; he is not writing a pan-Hellenic oil theology.
from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE
appears in · sourced · documented
Olive is associated with Tree.
The olive is a tree. Athena’s gift is one civic story about that tree.
from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE
associated with · sourced · documented
Olive is used in Offerings.
Oil and wreaths can be gifts. Pausanias notes local uses; he does not license a pan-Mediterranean olive-sacrament.
from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE
used in · sourced · documented
Athena is associated with Olive.
Athenian story makes the olive her gift in the contest for the city. A local aetiology of oil and prize, not every Mediterranean grove.
from Herodotus · Histories, c. 440s BCE; Walter Burkert · Greek Religion, 1977 German; 1985 English
associated with · partially sourced · documented
Athens is associated with Olive.
The civic olive and its prizes belong to Attica. Pausanias walks that landscape.
from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE
associated with · sourced · documented
Olive is used in Medicine.
Dioscorides’ De Materia Medica lists oil from olives among drugs: a vehicle for ointments, a gut remedy, and a draught against poisons; cultivated olive leaves are entered as milder eye medicines. A first-century pharmacological use of the tree and its oil, not Athena’s civic gift and not a Pausanian wreath-offering.
from Pedanius Dioscorides · De Materia Medica, 1st century CE
used in · sourced · documented
Islam
Olive appears in Islam.
The Qur’an opens sura 95 with an oath by the fig and the olive. A named plant in that Arabic scripture, not Athena’s civic gift at Athens, and not Dioscorides’ olive among drugs.
from M.A.S. Abdel Haleem (translation) · The Qur’an, 2004 (this translation); Arabic text 7th century CE
appears in · sourced · documented
sources
- Description of Greece · Pausanias
Pausanias, Description of Greece.
- De Materia Medica · Pedanius Dioscorides
Dioscorides, De Materia Medica.
- The Qur’an · M.A.S. Abdel Haleem (translation)
M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur’an (Oxford).
- Histories · Herodotus
Herodotus, Histories.
- Greek Religion · Walter Burkert
Walter Burkert, Greek Religion.