honorthegods:Athena’s Olive Tree. Acropolis, Athens, Greece.We all know the story: Athene and Poseid
honorthegods:Athena’s Olive Tree. Acropolis, Athens, Greece.We all know the story: Athene and Poseidon competed to become patrons of the new polis in Attica. Poseidon offered a gift of salt water, and Athene created the olive tree. Athene’s gift was judged to be the better, and Athens became the name of the city.An olive tree has always grown in the sacred precinct of the Acropolis. One was burned by Xerxes in 480 BCE. Legend says that a branch miraculously sprouted from the tree that same day, and cuttings were planted all across the region so that all the groves around Athens are descendants of the original tree. It is said that that members of the American School of Archaeology rescued a branch of the tree from the destruction of the Germans during World War II, and that the present tree was grown from that cutting. When it grew large enough, it was returned to the Acropolis, and planted by Queen Sofia. -- source link