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Mythology

Athens is named for the Goddess Athena who brought the olive to the Greeks as a gift. Zeus had promised to give 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, well-known as a rapid and powerful instrument of war. Athena planted the original olive tree on a rocky hill that we know today as the Acropolis.

The olive tree that grows there today is said to have come from the roots of the original tree.

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Rapid: very quick.