History has continuously referred to the symbolic values of olives and olive oil in popular beliefs and religions.

In Ancient Rome, the olive oil traders dedicated a statue and a temple to Hercules Olivarius, and the dead were traditionally decorated with olive boughs. In Ancient Pompei the Romans used olive oil for washing their hair. The disciples described the Garden of Gethsemane, where Christ often prayed and was arrested, as an olive grove.

It is said that in Italy there is an olive tree that is 3500 years old. Olive trees can be seen as a symbol of tradition and a witness of eras gone by. It is a bearer of long forgotten times and legacies.

This is one of the reasons why the olive tree is regarded as a symbol of patience: looking at an olive tree gives a feeling of serenity, peace and tranquility. Furthermore, the olive tree is the symbol of immortality: it gives power to kings and priests, and its boughs crown heroes and Olympic champions.

Legend tells that the goddess Athena gave the olive tree to the men, so that in Ancient Greece the law punished people who damaged those trees.

Athens is named for the Goddess Athena who brought the olive to the Greeks as a gift. Zeus had promised to give Attica to the god or goddess who made the most useful invention. Athena's gift of the olive, useful for light, heat, food, medicine and perfume was picked as a more peaceful invention than Poseidon's horse - touted as a rapid and powerful instrument of war. Athena planted the original olive tree on a rocky hill, which we know today as the Acropolis. The olive tree that grows there today is said to have come from the roots of the original tree.