ATHENA :: a space for student writing

According to myth, the Goddess Athena brought the olive to the Greeks as a gift because Zeus had promised to give the region of Attica to the god or goddess who made the most useful invention. Athena's gift of the olive, useful for light, heat, food, medicine, and perfume, was picked as a more peaceful invention than Poseidon's horse, touted as a rapid and powerful instrument of war. Athena planted the original olive tree, known as the Moria, on a rocky hill that we know now as the Acropolis. The olive tree that grows there today is said to have come from the roots of the original tree. ~ adapted from the Olive Oil Source, 2018