GREEK OLIVE OIL history

Olive tree started its’ own journey on prehistoric times. Mediterranean people welcomed olive trees – brought by the Phoenicians – 7000 years ago. As such, the Greek nation was the 1st to cultivate olive trees (olive tree cultivation begun in Crete at 3500 BC) in the Mediterranean region - it has been entwined with Greek history since 3500 BC, when the olive tree cultivation begun in Crete, the homeland of Mediterranean diet.

At that time, olive oil was used to explain or define different things. During the Homeric times, olive oil has been used as an ointment and according to historical findings, a specific description of Aristotele’s contributions presents the olive cultivation as science. Homer – the great Greek poet, called once the olive oil "liquid gold" and Plato – one of the world’s best known Greek philosophers, taught his students under the shadow of olive trees.

Hippocrates – the Father of Medicine, declared that virgin olive oil was the integral medicine for 60 diseases and he called it "great healer". Not to mention that, in the 6th century BC, Laws of Solon prohibited the cutting down of olive trees – the punishment was even death. Between 7th-3rd century BC, well-known philosophers and physicians such as Theofrastus and Dioscorides, referred many times to the curative properties of olive oil. During the Classical Period, the Greek olive oil was exported throughout the world. In fact, many historical sources mention that Athenians were the greatest merchants of all.