The olive wreath, also known as kotinos (Greek: κότινος),[1] was the prize for the winner at the ancient Olympic Games. It was a branch of the wild olive tree[2] Kallistefanos Elea[3] (also referred to as Elaia Kallistephanos)[4] that grew at Olympia,[5] intertwined to form a circle or a horse-shoe. The branches of the sacred wild-olive tree near the temple of Zeus were cut by a pais amphithales (Ancient Greek: παῖς ἀμφιθαλής, a boy whose parents were both alive) with a pair of golden scissors. Then he took them to the temple of Hera and placed them on a gold-ivory table. From there, the Hellanodikai (the judges of the Olympic Games) would take them, make the wreaths and crown the winners of the Games.[6]
- ^ LSJ entry κότινος
- ^ "As a result of the early domestication and extensive cultivation of the olive tree throughout the Mediterranean Basin, the wild-looking forms of olive (oleasters) presently observed constitute a complex, potentially ranging from wild to feral forms." observe R Lumaret, N Ouazzani, H Michaud, G Vivier, "Allozyme variation of oleaster populations (wild olive tree)(Olea europaea L.) in the Mediterranean Basin" Heredity, 2004; feral "wild" olives (Olea europaea) were distinguished by Theophrastus and other ancient Greeks from kotinos the wild-olive, today informally but confusingly rendered oleaster; compare the unrelated modern genus Cotinus, from Anc. Gr. kotinos.
- ^ The Olympic Games- Retrieved 2018-07-02
- ^ Garden Collage- Retrieved 2018-07-02
- ^ Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants, IV.13.2: 'the wild-olive [kotinos] at Olympia, from which the wreaths for the games are made".
- ^ "Υπουργείο Πολιτισμού και Αθλητισμού – Αφιερώματα". odysseus.culture.gr.