Olive oil lamp and some of its history.

The oil gathered from the many olives on the island was already an important economical product for the Minoans. It was not only used for consumption, like it is today, but it was also the source of all lighting. Many olive lamps made sure the palaces were well lit. Because of this, the earthquake of 1450 BC was an even bigger disaster for the palaces that were mostly built out of wood because they were on fire rather quickly.

Yearly the Minoans exported large amounts of oil to e.g. Egypt in exchange for other important materials.
In ancient Greece the olive oil was even more important. At the Olympic games the athletes would rub oil on their bodies. The leaves had a symbolic purpose; the winning athletes of the Olympics received a crown of leaves from the olive tree. (During the Olympics of 2004 this tradition was again introduced. Interesting fact was that the crowns were made out of olive leaves from Crete.)

The olive tree was also a gift from the goddess Athina to the city of Athens, when she became protector of the city and the city was named after her. Symbol for this is the olive tree at the Acropolis in Athens.