Page:A Practical Treatise on Olive Culture, Oil Making and Olive Pickling.djvu/10

 in the constant verdure of the olive trees among which our Blessed Savior used to roam, and whence he wept over Jerusalem.

A venerable legend tells us that when Minerva became the tutelary goddess of the City of Cecrops, she caused the olive tree to grow spontaneously on the Rock of the Acropolis, which Neptune had just struck with his trident; and thence, kept with religious care, the olive tree became one of the emblems of the goddess.

Another legend represents Hercules introducing into Greece the olive tree which he brought from the Mounts Girapetra, in Creta.

Pindar says that all the slopes of Mount Olympus were soon covered with it, and that the Athenians used to crown with its branches the victors in the Olympic games.

From Greece it was introduced into Italy. There, says Virgil (Book II. Georgics), "the sterile lands and stony hills delight to be covered with the hardy and perennial olive tree."

Martial also says: "Hereafter the proud oak may be jealous of the olive tree of the Mount Alban!"

When the Phoceans founded Marseilles, about 600 years before the Christian Era, they introduced the olive tree in Provence, where they planted it only on steep and stony places.

In passing over a long period, during which the praises of the olive tree have been sung in many tongues, we come to that great agriculturist,