The document discusses the olive tree's symbolic significance in ancient Athens and its role in the 2004 Athens Olympics. It describes how the olive tree was chosen as the sacred symbol of Athens after Athena offered the tree to the people. Winners of the ancient Panathenaic Games and Olympic Games were awarded olive wreaths. For the 2004 Olympics, an olive tree sculpture was displayed featuring the names of visitors. The artist Aggelos Panagiotidis created several olive tree sculptures, some of which were gifted to international organizations related to the Olympics and Greece.

1. 12

2. Analogic image projection show
Platform
under
an
olive
tree
during
the
opening
ceremony
of
the
Athens
2004
Olympic
Games,
August
13,
2004

3. Analogic image projection show
Ceremony for the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games on September 17, 2004

4. The olive tree was the sacred symbol of the ancient
city of Athens. According to the legend, the god
Poseidon and the goddess Athena became rivals for
the protection of the city. They both offered to the
Athenian people a special gift in order to win their
favor. Poseidon hit the earth with his trident and
water sprang from the ground. But the water was
salty and of no use to the people. Athena, on the
other hand, offered them an olive tree which could be
used for nourishment (in the form of fruit and oil)
and for timber.
Her gift was considered much more useful and she
was named protector of the city. The olive tree
played such a crucial role to the prosperity of Athens
that the winners of the Panathenaic Games – held
during the Panathenaea, a great festival in honor of
the goddess which took place every four years –
received amphorae filled with this valuable olive oil.
Furthermore, the olive tree had a special, symbolic
value for Greek people, in general. During the
Olympic Games, winners were awarded a “kotino”, a
wreath made of branches cut from the sacred olive
tree which stood outside Zeus’ temple. It was
considered the highest prize an athlete could ever win
Aggelos Panagiotidis (Greek, 1950)

5. Aggelos Panagiotidis (Greek, 1950)

6. Aggelos Panagiotidis
(Greek, 1950)
During the Olympic
Games of Athens 2004
with gold olive wreaths
awarded all three of the
first Olympic Champions
of the Marathon (the
Italian, Stefano Baldini,
the American, Keflezighi
Mebrahtom and the
Brazilian Lima Vanderlei).
With the same wreath has
been honored and the
Slovak Matanin Marcel,
whose entering to the
Panathenaiko Stadium
became a symbol of the
end of the Games in
Athens and an exponent
of “fair play”

7. Aggelos Panagiotidis (Greek, 1950) Microsculpture

8. Aggelos
Panagiotidis
(Greek,
1950)

10. Aggelos
Panagiotidis
(Greek,
1950)
the artist
has been
awarded by
UNESCO for
its
contribution
in the
Olympic
Games of
2004 in
Athens

11. Aggelos Panagiotidis
(Greek, 1950)
Angelos Panagiotidis is the
creator of the “olive tree
of Athens” which is made
by bronze and copper,
height 3.30 meters,
consisting of 5,000 brass
leaves

12. Angelos Panagiotidis is the creator of the “olive tree of Athens”
which has been exposed throughout the duration of the Olympic
Games in Athens in the Park Donor (Water Plaza) at the Palaio
Faliro

13. "Elia, the tree of Athens", is a sculpture of natural dimensions made of bronze
and copper created by the artist Angelos Panagiotidis. On 5000 of its leaves
are engraved the names of an equal number of visitors and personalities of
politics, sports, and art, who visited during the Athens Olympic Games, the
Park of the Olympic Sponsors in Faliro, "WATER PLAZA”

14. The sculpture is now permanently exhibited in the Technopolis, in the city of
Athens, as it was offered by Coca Cola to the Municipality of Athens, as a
souvenir of the Olympic Games. All the Paralympic competitors were also
honored with a small replica of the“Olive Tree- Athens’ Tree” sculpture

15. Also copies of artworks of the “Olive Tree, the tree of Athens” offered by the
Sponsor of the Olympic Games, Coca Cola to the Olympic Museum in Lausanne and
the Olympic Committee in Beijing

16. Aggelos Panagiotidis
(Greek, 1950)
The emblematic olive
tree decorates from
25.6.2019 the new
Olympic house of the
International Olympic
Committee in Lausanne

17. Olive
Tree,
the
tree
of
Athens
the
Olympic
Museum
in
Lausanne

18. the Olympic Museum in Lausanne
Aggelos
Panagiotidis
(Greek,
1950)“Olive
Tree,
the
tree
of
Athens”

19. Aggelos Panagiotidis (Greek, 1950)

20. Aggelos
Panagiotidis
(Greek,
1950)

21. Aggelos
Panagiotidis
(Greek,
1950)

22. Aggelos
Panagiotidis
(Greek,
1950)

24. Aggelos
Panagiotidis
(Greek,
1950)

25. Aggelos
Panagiotidis
(Greek,
1950)

26. Aggelos
Panagiotidis
(Greek,
1950)

27. Aggelos Panagiotidis (Greek, 1950)
In May 2005 during the visit of Greek prime minister Karamanlis
to the U.S. was given a bronze olive tree as a gift to President Bush.
His works are still in the Security Council of the United Nations and
the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople

29. Aggelos Panagiotidis (Greek, 1950)
The tree we hart

30. Aggelos
Panagiotidis
(Greek,
1950)

32. Aggelos Panagiotidis (Greek, 1950)

33. Aggelos Panagiotidis (Greek, 1950)
With his artworks have been honored the Olympic Champions:
Pyrros Dimas and Nikos Kaklamanakis, as well as the former
chairman of parliament Apostolos Kaklamanis & Anna Psarouda-
Benaki and the Greek National Polo Women Team

34. Aggelos Panagiotidis (Greek, 1950)

35. Aggelos
Panagiotidis
(Greek,
1950)

36. Aggelos
Panagiotidis
(Greek,
1950)
Tree
of
love

37. Aggelos Panagiotidis (Greek, 1950)

38. Aggelos
Panagiotidis
(Greek,
1950)

39. Aggelos Panagiotidis (Greek, 1950)

40. Aggelos
Panagiotidis
(Greek,
1950)
Red
boat

41. Aggelos
Panagiotidis
(Greek,
1950)

42. Aggelos Panagiotidis
(Greek, 1950)
Gamos

43. Aggelos
Panagiotidis
(Greek,
1950)
The olive
tree that
adorns
Amfilochia

44. Aggelos Panagiotidis (Greek, 1950) Olive tree in Amfilochia

45. Aggelos Panagiotidis (Greek, 1950)
Olive tree in Amfilochia

46. Constantinos Valaes
(Greek, 1957)
Bronze olive trees
‘decorate’ the
Makedonia Palace in
Thessaloniki

47. Constantinos
Valaes
(Greek,
1957)
Athena
Achille

48. Constantinos Valaes (Greek, 1957) Achille

49. Constantinos
Valaes
(Greek,
1957)
Olive
trees

50. Constantinos
Valaes
(Greek,
1957)
Icare
Aphrodite

51. Constantinos
Valaes
(Greek, 1957)
Zeus

52. Constantinos
Valaes
(Greek,
1957)
Gaia
Heracles

53. Text & pictures: Internet
All copyrights belong to their respective owners
Presentation: Sanda Foişoreanu
www.slideshare.net/michaelasanda
https://ma-planete.com/michaelasanda
Sound: Agnes Baltsa: Méra Magioú (A day in May); Se pótisa rodóstamo (I gave you rose-water to drink) by Mikis Theodorakis
2022

54. 2022