The olive tree was considered a most precious tree in ancient Greece, a sacred tree, so much so that its felling was severely punished. Homer chose this plant as the symbol of firm and lasting marital union between Odysseus and Penelope, being inspired by the tree’s sturdiness and longevity.

In the twenty-third book of the Odyssey there is one of the most beautiful and intense passages of the Odyssey, in which the Greek poet describes the love between the two spouses. When Odysseus returns to Ithaca only one thing could have convinced Penelope of his identity: the nuptial bed that had been carved out of the trunk of an olive tree, whose roots had firmly penetrated the ground and around which Odysseus had chosen to build the marital chamber.

“Beautiful of olive tree luxuriant rose in my courtyard, the branches wide, and large much, of column in guise. I of committed stones around it contrived me the marital room, and with a beautiful roof I covered it, and firm doors I imposed on it, and firmly attested. Then, seeing its olive mane, I cut the trunk cleanly up from the root, and with planes I went lightly over it, and used the infallible square and the sharp spike. Thus the support I made me of the bed […]”