OLIVE-TREE. 



The Olive is common to all the quarters of the earth ; 

 it is celebrated in scriptural history, the dove, which Noah 

 sent out from the ark, returning with an Olive-branch in 

 his bill. 



According to poetical history, the Olive was presented 

 to the world by Minerva. We are told that a contest arose 

 between that goddess and Neptune for the right of giving 

 a name to the city of Athens; and that Jupiter decreed 

 that the right should belong to whichever of them should 

 confer the most beneficial gift upon mankind. 



" The sea-god stood, and with his trident strake 

 The cleaving rock, from whence a fountain brake; 

 Whereon he grounds his claim. With spear and shield 

 Herself she arms : her head a murrion steild : 

 Her breast her Egis guards. ' Her lance the. ground 

 Appears to strike; and from that pregnant wound 

 The hoary Olive, charged with fruit, ascends. 

 The Gods admire : with victory she ends *." 



SANDYS'S OVID, Book Sixth. 



The more general belief is, that the stroke of Neptune's 

 trident produced a horse. Whichever it may have been, 

 there seems, notwithstanding the great utility of the Olive, 

 to be some ground of suspicion that Minerva owed her 

 victory chiefly to the gallantry of the gods assembled. 



The virtues of the Olive, however, are partly emble- 

 matical : it is considered as the symbol of peace ; and if, 

 in the character of the Goddess of Wisdom, she so far 

 overcame her warlike propensities as to dispose mankind 

 to peace, she cannot be sufficiently honoured for so esti- 

 mable a benefit. '*7 



Spenser tells the story differently, and in a manner more 



* " Pliny says the olive-tree, produced on that occasion by Minerva, 

 was to be seen in his time at Athens." 



SEE NOTES OF MARTYN'S VIRGIL. 



