Trees 12

1. 12

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

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

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