Olive and Olive Oil Myths IV - Anatolian Folk Stories and Beliefs
Starling or common starling (Sturnus vulgaris): It is a bird species belonging to the starling family of songbirds. Especially when they fly en masse, their singing is varied, if not musical in tone. Flocks of starlings of up to 1.5 million individuals can be observed, the phenomenon elicited by the moving silhouette of the flock in the sky, called sort sol ("kara güneş", kaynak) in northern Europe. He has the ability to imitate, so he has been the subject of stories.
In the Oguz Kagan Epic, one of the myths related to trees in pre-Islamic Turkish culture; It is told that Oguz found his second wife in a tree hollow, and the baby named "Kipçak" of a deceased soldier was born in the tree hole. The children who make up the Uyghur generation in the Uyghur Turks' Epic of Descent are descended from the light that descends on a tree. In the Creation Epic of the Altai Turks; The first humans, the nine people, were descended from a nine-branched tree by God's command. Again, in the same epic, it is mentioned that there is a pine tree called the "world tree", which is the largest of the trees, in the center of the world, and on top of this tree is the house of "Mr. Ülgen".
Trees considered sacred in Anatolia are, respectively, pine, pine, hackberry (menengiç) and olive. Before the Turks came to Anatolia, the olive tree was one of the ancient sacred trees of the Mediterranean coastal regions. The Turkmen population who settled in these regions see the olive tree as a symbol of fertility due to its yield. Turkmens started their olive growing activities in XI. century, when they settled around Western Anatolia.
Evliya Çelebi tells an interesting story about the talisman of the Çemberlitaş column. Accordingly, a talisman in the form of a starling was placed at the top of the column. This bird flaps its wings once a year, and other birds that consider this a sign bring olives with their beaks and nails.
Mehmed Hemdemi Çelebi, who lived in the 17th century, also narrates a legend similar to Evliya's. Rumor has it that a scholar named Rukiya, who heard that the imaginary Byzantine emperor Yanko bin Madyan would build a large city and church, came to Istanbul to demonstrate his skills. Here he makes a starling bird of pure gold and puts the olive pit in the starling's mouth. On a plate he made from gold, he engraved a talisman with the holy names of olives in the Torah and Psalms, and placed it on the dome of the great church. A year later, they would hang the same plate on the starling-shaped jewel, so that the olives they would collect would be fruitful.