Ancient Greece and Rome
In Greek mythology, Athene competed with Poseidon for possession of Athens. Poseidon claimed possession by thrusting his trident into the Acropolis, where a well of sea-water gushed out. Athene took possession by planting the first olive tree beside the well. The court of gods and goddesses ruled that Athene had the better right to the land because she had given it the better gift. Olive wreaths were worn by brides and awarded to olympic victors.
The olive branch was one of the attributes of Eirene on Roman Imperial coins. For example, the reverse of a tetradrachm of Vespasian from Alexandria, 70-71 CE, shows Eirene standing holding a branch upward in her right hand.
The Roman poet Virgil (70-10 BCE) associated "the plump olive" with the goddess Pax (the Roman Eirene) and he used the olive branch as a symbol of peace in his Aeneid:
- "High on the stern Aeneas his stand,
- And held a branch of olive in his hand,
- While thus he spoke: "The Phrygians' arms you see,
- Expelled from Troy, provoked in Italy
- By Latian foes, with war unjustly made;
- At first affianced, and at last betrayed.
- This message bear: The Trojans and their chief
- Bring holy peace, and beg the king's relief."
For the Romans, there was an intimate relationship between war and peace, and Mars, the god of war, had another aspect, Mars Pacifer, Mars the bringer of Peace, who is shown on coins of the later Roman Empire bearing an olive branch. Appian describes the use of the olive-branch as a gesture of peace by the enemies of the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus in the Numantine War and by Hasdrubal the Boeotarch of Carthage.
Read more about this topic: Olive Branch
Famous quotes containing the words greece and rome, ancient greece, ancient, greece and/or rome:
“The science, the art, the jurisprudence, the chief political and social theories, of the modern world have grown out of Greece and Rome—not by favor of, but in the teeth of, the fundamental teachings of early Christianity, to which science, art, and any serious occupation with the things of this world were alike despicable.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“In my Pantheon, Pan still reigns in his pristine glory, with his ruddy face, his flowing beard, and his shaggy body, his pipe and his crook, his nymph Echo, and his chosen daughter Iambe; for the great god Pan is not dead, as was rumored. No god ever dies. Perhaps of all the gods of New England and of ancient Greece, I am most constant at his shrine.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“When I was young, beautiful ancient statues were castrated, so that the eye might not be corrupted.... Nothing was gained, unless horses and asses had also been castrated.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“When a man hath no freedom to fight for at home,
Let him combat for that of his neighbors;
Let him think of the glories of Greece and of Rome,
And get knocked on the head for his labors.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)