Olive oil occupies a surprisingly rich stratum in the depth-psychology and history-of-religions corpus, functioning less as a dietary substance than as a material bearer of sacred life-force. Onians’ foundational argument in The Origins of European Thought establishes the interpretive frame: olive oil is the mortal equivalent of ambrosia, a fat-substance believed by Homeric Greeks to infuse vitality through the skin, to ‘feed’ the body with the stuff of life just as sweat carries it out. This theory of transdermal nourishment through anointing underwrites a remarkable range of ritual practices—athletic, funerary, royal, and initiatory—traceable from Homer through Hebraic coronation rites to Christian baptismal theology. Harrison’s Themis corroborates the identification of olive oil as one of three components constituting ritual ambrosia (alongside pure water and pankarpia), locating the substance within the mysteries’ logic of cyclical regeneration. Homer’s Iliad supplies the most vivid literary locus: Hera’s pre-seduction anointing with ‘ambrosial, sweetly scented’ olive oil, linking divine eros to the luminous, fragrant, life-conferring properties of the substance. John of Damascus closes the arc theologically, explicating olive oil’s baptismal use as sign of divine mercy and the anointing of the Spirit. The tensions in the corpus run between a naturalistic reading (oil as nutriment and preservative) and a sacral reading (oil as vehicle of divine power), with Onians holding both simultaneously.
Olive oil is employed in baptism as a significant of our anointing, and as making us anointed, and as announcing to us through the Holy Spirit God’s pity
John of Damascus articulates the orthodox sacramental theology of olive oil as the sign and vehicle of the Holy Spirit’s anointing grace in baptism.
, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, 2021thesis
ambrosia is pure water and olive oil and pankarpia. Pour in these… in the pankarpia and the oil and the pure living water are the seeds for immortality, for next year’s reincarnation
Harrison identifies olive oil as one of three ritual constituents of ambrosia, arguing that its inclusion encodes an archaic mystery-religion logic of cyclical immortality and earthly regeneration.
, Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion, 1912thesis
if we must think of ambrosia as a divine counterpart to the ἀλείφαρ possessed by men, i.e. to animal grease or its equivalent, olive-oil
Onians proposes that ambrosia is the divine correlate of the mortal anointing substance—olive oil—understood as the stuff of life transmitted through the skin.
, The origins of European thought about the body, the mind,, 1988thesis
she rubbed herself with olive oil— ambrosial, sweetly scented perfumed oil, and when she moved, its fragrance filled the house of Zeus
The Iliadic passage presents olive oil as an ambrosial, divine substance whose fragrance permeates the cosmos, connecting mortal anointing practice with divine eros and transformative power.
, The Iliad, 2023thesis
anointing, the application to the body of oily liquids or unguents… was, I suggest, thought to feed, to introduce into the body through the pores, the stuff of life and strength
Onians argues that anointing with oil—including olive oil—was believed in antiquity to replenish the body’s vital substance through the skin, making it a somatic ritual of life-restoration.
, The origins of European thought about the body, the mind,, 1988supporting
Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the holy Spirit and with power… son of God by anointing
Onians traces a continuous tradition from Homeric oil-anointing through Hebraic royal consecration to Christ’s anointing by the Spirit, demonstrating olive oil’s enduring role as the medium of divine empowerment.
, The origins of European thought about the body, the mind,, 1988supporting
son of God by anointing, that contended with the ‘Son of Man’
Onians connects Solomonic and Davidic royal anointing rites with water and oil to the broader Indo-European belief that divine power is conferred materially through the anointing substance.
, The origins of European thought about the body, the mind,, 1988supporting
the queen brings milk, honey, water, wine, and oil and also flowers to the grave of the dead king; the songs which accompany the pouring call the dead Darius to the light
Burkert documents oil as one of a sequence of libation substances offered at the grave, positioning it within the chthonic ritual economy of offerings to the dead.
, Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical, 1977supporting
λίπα [adv.] ‘fat, gleaming’… λιπαρός ‘fat, gleaming (of oil or unguent), fruitful’… λιπαίνω ‘to make fat, anoint’
Beekes’ etymological entry traces the Greek vocabulary of oiliness and anointing (λίπα, λιπαρός), illuminating the semantic field of gleaming, fatness, and fertility within which olive oil operated.
, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, 2010aside
nectar should be the divine equivalent of the other form of nourishment which men thought proper to offer to the gods—wine
Onians distinguishes nectar (divine wine) from ambrosia (divine oil/fat), clarifying the structural pair that places olive oil on the ambrosia side of the divine nourishment duality.
, The origins of European thought about the body, the mind,, 1988aside
ληκύθος [f.] ‘casket for oil or perfume’ (Od.), also metaph. ‘rhetorical bombast’… αὐτο-λήκυθος ‘who carries his own oil-casket’ (out of poverty) = ‘poor man, beggar’
The entry for the Greek oil-flask (lēkythos) gestures at the cultural ubiquity of oil-carrying as a practice, extending into social metaphor.
, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, 2010aside