Olive Oil Culture History VIII - Ancient Hellenistic and Ionian Civilization II
16-04-2025
11:58
Aryballos; pottery perfume/ointment oil vase, Chigi Painter, with 18 warrior figures hunting hares and racing horses, upper part in the shape of a lion's head, approximately 7 cm, 640 BC, Corinth, source .
For the Greeks, the successors of the Mycenaean Civilization that was destroyed by the Sea Peoples migration before them, olive oil - which they used for body care and perfume production - was one of the most imported goods. Olive oil was an export product for Syria and Palestine (the Levant region) at that time, and a valuable import product for the markets of Egypt, Greece and later Rome.
The most common place in public life in Classical Greek Athens where olive oil was consumed was probably the large gymnasiums, buildings with seating, terraces, and baths, surrounded by porched courtyards, where sporting events were held. Gymnasiums were places accessible only to the men of the ruling upper class, where elite young boys were given the training needed to become future leaders.
It seems that for centuries the trade in quality olive oil was in the hands of the winners of the Pan-Athenian (Panathinakos, everything for Athens) games, held every four years in honor of the goddess Athena on her birthday. These games, held every four years, were held every third year after the Olympics, between August 25-29. In the Pan-Athenian games, specially shaped and decorated “Pan-Athenian amphorae”, each with a capacity of about forty liters, were awarded to the winners of various athletic competitions. This amphora, an ancient jug, had Athena on one side and the sport in which the athlete competed on the other, and contained olive oil. In the competitions held on Athena’s birthday, virgins wearing olive wreaths would march.
Pan-Athenian amphorae found in archaeological excavations in different parts of the Mediterranean world, from Cyrene in Africa to Marseille in the West, are an indication that large quantities of olive oil were shipped from the Levant and other geographies to the Greek Peninsula and the western Mediterranean. According to various estimates by archaeologists based on scientific evidence, the total amount of olive oil awarded to the victors in the games was between forty-two and seventy-two tons.
In the festivals held for the first time in the Olympia region in 776 BC in the name of the chief god Zeus, wreaths made of sacred olive trees were kept ready on a table made of ivory and gold in the temple of Zeus. These crowns, made of branches cut from wild olive trees that grew in the backyard of the Temple of Zeus and were believed to have been planted by Hercules and were therefore considered sacred, were placed on the heads of the winning athletes. Athletes would rub their bodies with olive oil before the competition. More than one view has been put forward regarding the reason for this habit; to protect from the sun's rays during the competition, to stretch and warm their muscles, to reduce water and electrolyte loss caused by sweat, and to look more aesthetically pleasing by creating a shiny appearance. The culture of athletes oiling their bodies is still alive in today's Kırkpınar Oil Wrestling, and the history of the culture is as old as the Egyptian and Assyrian Civilizations.
After the competition, they would clean their skin by scraping off the sweat, oil and soil that had accumulated on it with a strigilis (Latin for scraper, a type of L-shaped bronze bath scourer). It has been understood that the strigilis we see on vase paintings dating back to the second half of the 6th century BC were used not only by athletes but also by soldiers, doctors, pharmacists, women and children of the time. The most famous depiction of this culture is the bronze statue called “Apoxyomenos - Self-Cleaning” made by Alexander the Great’s sculptor and metal foundryman Lysippus (400 BC), the original of which is lost. It is considered a revolutionary work because it is the first fully round statue in Greek art. According to what we learn from the ancient Roman writer Pliny the Elder, the ointment-like mixture of sweat and oil scraped off the body after exercise was called “gloios” and was sold for a considerable price because it was believed to be good for treating diseases. It is known that the Greeks had a habit of applying scented oils, including olive oil, to their bodies not only after athletic competitions but also after bathing. Again, as we learn from Pliny, the Greeks believed that scrapings taken from baths were better for treating inflammation, while those taken from the gym were more suitable for fighting inflammation.
In the 6th century BC, olive oil production began to spread in the Mediterranean basin, in Tripoli, Tunisia and Sicily, and from there to the north of Italy.
Phidias (490-428 BC), who was considered one of the greatest sculptors of the time, made a thirteen-meter-high statue of Zeus with an olive wreath on his head, made of gold and ivory, considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, on Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in the Greek peninsula. This statue, made of ivory, was constantly rubbed with olive oil to prevent it from deteriorating in the humid air of Olympus. The shine of the statue and the smell of olive oil must have created a spiritual feeling in the congregation who came to the temple. Another sculptor who lived in the same era, Callimachus, made a golden lamp to illuminate the statue of Athena in the temple of Athena in Athens. The lamp was filled with olive oil once a year.
The Ionians were people who fled the raids of the Dorians who raided Greece in 1200 BC and migrated to Western Anatolia via the islands and founded city-states. In 600 BC, the Ionian people living in the coastal city of Western Anatolia called "Klazomenai" built an ancient olive oil mill. The findings related to the ancient city of Klazomenai were unearthed in the İskele neighborhood and its surroundings, which includes Karantina Island, in the Urla district of today's Izmir (Smyrna in ancient times), on the western coast of Türkiye. The feature of the mill was that olive oil was produced with a new technology that was not applied in any other mill at the time. The Klazomenai people were the first to use stone cylinders rotating around the same shaft to crush the collected olives, and they were the first to use a large press and a bocurgat (spinning wheel), that is, a tool used to lift this press, in order to increase the capacity of olive oil production. They were the first to develop a three-chambered mechanism that worked on the principle of combined vessels in the olive oil separation process and to realize uninterrupted production. In archaeological studies conducted in overseas countries, the large number of amphorae specially produced by the Clazomenaeans for use in olive oil transportation are considered evidence that Clazomenae was one of the important olive oil production centers of the Mediterranean at that time. These findings show that Ionia (the name given to the coasts of today's Izmir and Aydin provinces in Anatolia) made important contributions, at least from a technological perspective, to the extraction of oil from olives throughout history.
It is thought that women would pour 1.5 liters of olive oil a year, dripping from rare etherea (perfume bottles), onto their bodies and faces. Greek perfume, marketed in Corinthian aryballos and alabastrons, would become a product known to all Mediterranean, Aegean and Black Sea peoples.
It is estimated that men's annual consumption is over 5 liters for sports, massage and skin health. Travelers who were going on long journeys would apply olive oil to prevent their feet from getting sore. As the population increased over time, the demand for olive oil also began to increase.
It is estimated that in Athens of that period, each household used approximately 90-110 liters of olive oil per year, either as fuel for lamps or for use in religious ceremonies (funerals).
Around 400 BC, the efficiency of olive oil processing plants in Northern Greece began to increase with the use of a cylindrical crushing vessel that rotated around a shaft. The emergence of large mansions belonging to the upper classes of Macedonia and the existence of large cities such as Alexandria and Antioch, which stood out with their increasing populations at that time, increased the need for olive oil, and in parallel with this, methods that increased efficiency in order to meet the demand began to become widespread.
In the Hellenistic period, when Greek influence reached its peak in the 300s BC, the amount of olive oil consumed by wealthy citizens in the rising cities for food, body care and home lighting was approximately the amount needed by a wealthy Athenian family - about two hundred kilos per year. Athenians used 25-30 liters of cooking oil per person per year. Among the recipes given by the Greek gastronome Athenaios, author of Deipnosophistai (200 BC), which is considered one of the first cookbooks in history - consisting of conversations between two people at a banquet table that last for days - is olive oil sarma.
Compiled by: Uğur Saraçoğlu, Physician, Olive and Olive Oil Producer (ugisaracoglu@yahoo.com.tr)
Source:
1. Olive and Olive Cultivation in Western Anatolia in Ancient Times; Gülhan Mumkaya, Master Thesis, Thesis Advisor: Prof. Dr. Özdemir Koçak, Konya, 2012.
2. The Journey of Olive in the Mediterranean; Conference Proceedings, Dr. Alp Yücel Kaya, Ertekin Akpınar, 2016.
3. World Olive Encyclopedia; International Olive Council; Fausso Luchetti, 1997.
4. Historical Development of Olive Oil Production Techniques and Comparison with Each Other, Taner Gülal, Master's Thesis, Uludağ University, Institute of Science, Department of Food Engineering, 2015.
5. https://www.arteworld.it/apoxyomenos/ .
6. https://www.arkeolojisanat.com/shop/blog/izmir-muzesinde-strigilis-ziyarete-acildi_3_1297469.html .
7. Pharmaceutical Purpose of the Strigilis in Antiquity Data and Evidence, Danış Baykan, CollAn IX, Year 2010, Issue: 9, 141 - 152, 01.06.2010.
8. https://ancientandmodernolympics.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/why-did-ancient-athletes-cover-themselves-in-oil/ .
9. Perfume and Perfume Containers in the Ancient Greek World; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cenker Atila, Perfume from Antiquity to the Present, Myrina Publications, 2021.
For the Greeks, the successors of the Mycenaean Civilization that was destroyed by the Sea Peoples migration before them, olive oil - which they used for body care and perfume production - was one of the most imported goods. Olive oil was an export product for Syria and Palestine (the Levant region) at that time, and a valuable import product for the markets of Egypt, Greece and later Rome.
The most common place in public life in Classical Greek Athens where olive oil was consumed was probably the large gymnasiums, buildings with seating, terraces, and baths, surrounded by porched courtyards, where sporting events were held. Gymnasiums were places accessible only to the men of the ruling upper class, where elite young boys were given the training needed to become future leaders.
It seems that for centuries the trade in quality olive oil was in the hands of the winners of the Pan-Athenian (Panathinakos, everything for Athens) games, held every four years in honor of the goddess Athena on her birthday. These games, held every four years, were held every third year after the Olympics, between August 25-29. In the Pan-Athenian games, specially shaped and decorated “Pan-Athenian amphorae”, each with a capacity of about forty liters, were awarded to the winners of various athletic competitions. This amphora, an ancient jug, had Athena on one side and the sport in which the athlete competed on the other, and contained olive oil. In the competitions held on Athena’s birthday, virgins wearing olive wreaths would march.
Pan-Athenian amphorae found in archaeological excavations in different parts of the Mediterranean world, from Cyrene in Africa to Marseille in the West, are an indication that large quantities of olive oil were shipped from the Levant and other geographies to the Greek Peninsula and the western Mediterranean. According to various estimates by archaeologists based on scientific evidence, the total amount of olive oil awarded to the victors in the games was between forty-two and seventy-two tons.
In the festivals held for the first time in the Olympia region in 776 BC in the name of the chief god Zeus, wreaths made of sacred olive trees were kept ready on a table made of ivory and gold in the temple of Zeus. These crowns, made of branches cut from wild olive trees that grew in the backyard of the Temple of Zeus and were believed to have been planted by Hercules and were therefore considered sacred, were placed on the heads of the winning athletes. Athletes would rub their bodies with olive oil before the competition. More than one view has been put forward regarding the reason for this habit; to protect from the sun's rays during the competition, to stretch and warm their muscles, to reduce water and electrolyte loss caused by sweat, and to look more aesthetically pleasing by creating a shiny appearance. The culture of athletes oiling their bodies is still alive in today's Kırkpınar Oil Wrestling, and the history of the culture is as old as the Egyptian and Assyrian Civilizations.
After the competition, they would clean their skin by scraping off the sweat, oil and soil that had accumulated on it with a strigilis (Latin for scraper, a type of L-shaped bronze bath scourer). It has been understood that the strigilis we see on vase paintings dating back to the second half of the 6th century BC were used not only by athletes but also by soldiers, doctors, pharmacists, women and children of the time. The most famous depiction of this culture is the bronze statue called “Apoxyomenos - Self-Cleaning” made by Alexander the Great’s sculptor and metal foundryman Lysippus (400 BC), the original of which is lost. It is considered a revolutionary work because it is the first fully round statue in Greek art. According to what we learn from the ancient Roman writer Pliny the Elder, the ointment-like mixture of sweat and oil scraped off the body after exercise was called “gloios” and was sold for a considerable price because it was believed to be good for treating diseases. It is known that the Greeks had a habit of applying scented oils, including olive oil, to their bodies not only after athletic competitions but also after bathing. Again, as we learn from Pliny, the Greeks believed that scrapings taken from baths were better for treating inflammation, while those taken from the gym were more suitable for fighting inflammation.
In the 6th century BC, olive oil production began to spread in the Mediterranean basin, in Tripoli, Tunisia and Sicily, and from there to the north of Italy.
Phidias (490-428 BC), who was considered one of the greatest sculptors of the time, made a thirteen-meter-high statue of Zeus with an olive wreath on his head, made of gold and ivory, considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, on Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in the Greek peninsula. This statue, made of ivory, was constantly rubbed with olive oil to prevent it from deteriorating in the humid air of Olympus. The shine of the statue and the smell of olive oil must have created a spiritual feeling in the congregation who came to the temple. Another sculptor who lived in the same era, Callimachus, made a golden lamp to illuminate the statue of Athena in the temple of Athena in Athens. The lamp was filled with olive oil once a year.
The Ionians were people who fled the raids of the Dorians who raided Greece in 1200 BC and migrated to Western Anatolia via the islands and founded city-states. In 600 BC, the Ionian people living in the coastal city of Western Anatolia called "Klazomenai" built an ancient olive oil mill. The findings related to the ancient city of Klazomenai were unearthed in the İskele neighborhood and its surroundings, which includes Karantina Island, in the Urla district of today's Izmir (Smyrna in ancient times), on the western coast of Türkiye. The feature of the mill was that olive oil was produced with a new technology that was not applied in any other mill at the time. The Klazomenai people were the first to use stone cylinders rotating around the same shaft to crush the collected olives, and they were the first to use a large press and a bocurgat (spinning wheel), that is, a tool used to lift this press, in order to increase the capacity of olive oil production. They were the first to develop a three-chambered mechanism that worked on the principle of combined vessels in the olive oil separation process and to realize uninterrupted production. In archaeological studies conducted in overseas countries, the large number of amphorae specially produced by the Clazomenaeans for use in olive oil transportation are considered evidence that Clazomenae was one of the important olive oil production centers of the Mediterranean at that time. These findings show that Ionia (the name given to the coasts of today's Izmir and Aydin provinces in Anatolia) made important contributions, at least from a technological perspective, to the extraction of oil from olives throughout history.
It is thought that women would pour 1.5 liters of olive oil a year, dripping from rare etherea (perfume bottles), onto their bodies and faces. Greek perfume, marketed in Corinthian aryballos and alabastrons, would become a product known to all Mediterranean, Aegean and Black Sea peoples.
It is estimated that men's annual consumption is over 5 liters for sports, massage and skin health. Travelers who were going on long journeys would apply olive oil to prevent their feet from getting sore. As the population increased over time, the demand for olive oil also began to increase.
It is estimated that in Athens of that period, each household used approximately 90-110 liters of olive oil per year, either as fuel for lamps or for use in religious ceremonies (funerals).
Around 400 BC, the efficiency of olive oil processing plants in Northern Greece began to increase with the use of a cylindrical crushing vessel that rotated around a shaft. The emergence of large mansions belonging to the upper classes of Macedonia and the existence of large cities such as Alexandria and Antioch, which stood out with their increasing populations at that time, increased the need for olive oil, and in parallel with this, methods that increased efficiency in order to meet the demand began to become widespread.
In the Hellenistic period, when Greek influence reached its peak in the 300s BC, the amount of olive oil consumed by wealthy citizens in the rising cities for food, body care and home lighting was approximately the amount needed by a wealthy Athenian family - about two hundred kilos per year. Athenians used 25-30 liters of cooking oil per person per year. Among the recipes given by the Greek gastronome Athenaios, author of Deipnosophistai (200 BC), which is considered one of the first cookbooks in history - consisting of conversations between two people at a banquet table that last for days - is olive oil sarma.
Compiled by: Uğur Saraçoğlu, Physician, Olive and Olive Oil Producer (ugisaracoglu@yahoo.com.tr)
Source:
1. Olive and Olive Cultivation in Western Anatolia in Ancient Times; Gülhan Mumkaya, Master Thesis, Thesis Advisor: Prof. Dr. Özdemir Koçak, Konya, 2012.
2. The Journey of Olive in the Mediterranean; Conference Proceedings, Dr. Alp Yücel Kaya, Ertekin Akpınar, 2016.
3. World Olive Encyclopedia; International Olive Council; Fausso Luchetti, 1997.
4. Historical Development of Olive Oil Production Techniques and Comparison with Each Other, Taner Gülal, Master's Thesis, Uludağ University, Institute of Science, Department of Food Engineering, 2015.
5. https://www.arteworld.it/apoxyomenos/ .
6. https://www.arkeolojisanat.com/shop/blog/izmir-muzesinde-strigilis-ziyarete-acildi_3_1297469.html .
7. Pharmaceutical Purpose of the Strigilis in Antiquity Data and Evidence, Danış Baykan, CollAn IX, Year 2010, Issue: 9, 141 - 152, 01.06.2010.
8. https://ancientandmodernolympics.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/why-did-ancient-athletes-cover-themselves-in-oil/ .
9. Perfume and Perfume Containers in the Ancient Greek World; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cenker Atila, Perfume from Antiquity to the Present, Myrina Publications, 2021.
10. https://ancientanatomies.wordpress.com/2017/11/21/gloios-grime-sweat-and-olive-oil/ .
11. Karadoğan, Umut C., Kırkpınar Oil Wrestling from Past to Future, Berikan Yay., Ankara, 2020.