318 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



employed in pouring out libations to the gods; 

 while the branches formed the wreaths of the victors 

 at the Olympic Games. It was also used in lubri- 

 cating the human body. Some of the traditions say 

 that it was brought out of Egypt to Athens by Ce- 

 crops; while others affirm that Hercules introduced 

 it to Greece on his return from his expeditions; 

 that he planted it upon Mount Olympus, and set the 

 first example of its use in the Games. The Greeks 

 had a pretty and instructive fable in their mythology, 

 on the origin of the olive. They said that Neptune, 

 having a dispute with Minerva, as to the name of the 

 city of Athens, it was decided by the gods that the 

 deity who gave the best present to mankind should 

 have the privilege in dispute. Neptune struck the 

 shore, out of which sprung a horse: but Minerva pro- 

 duced an olive tree. The goddess had the triumph ; for 

 it was adjudged that Peace, of which the olive is the 

 symbol, was infinitely better than War, to which the 

 horse was considered as belonging, and typifying. 

 Even in the sacred history, the olive is invested with 

 more honour than any other tree. The patriarch 

 Noah had sent out a dove from the ark, but she re- 

 turned without any token of hope. Then " He stayed 

 yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove 

 out of the ark; and the dove came to him in the 

 evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive branch 

 plucked off: so Noah knew , that the waters were 

 abated from the earth." 



The veneration for the olive, and also the great 

 duration of the tree, appears from the history of one 

 in the Acropolis at Athens. Dr. Clarke has this pas- 

 sage in his Travels,* in speaking of the temple of 

 Pandrosus " Within this building, so late as the 

 second century, was preserved the olive tree mentioned 



* Vol. vi. p, 246. 



