Simon of Cyrene or “El Cirineo” was, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, the person who helped carry the Jesus’s cross to Golgotha, where he would later be crucified. It is said that «he came from the country».
His city of origin, Cyrene, was located in North Africa, in what is now Libya, whose origin dates back several centuries before Christ. This is the land where the cultivation of the traditional olive tree originated, and it has been maintained up until the present.
Little is known about this figure, except what was transcribed in the New Testament. It is possible that his knowledge about the olive farming acquired in his homeland took him to Jerusalem, where he shared his wisdom and devoted himself to the cultivation of olive trees in the area.
According to legend, in Thessaly there was a beautiful woman named Cyrene, who was devoted to herding. She was the daughter of the king of the Lapitans that were famous for fighting against centaurs.
Apollo watched her one day in the forest and fell in love with her. He saw her fight against a lion, which she defeated with her bare hands, so he decided to kidnap her and take her away in his golden chariot. He fled with her to Libya in the north of Africa, whose lands he gave to her and that were then called the region of Cyrene.
The product of this love was a son who was called Aristeo, who, by his parents, was entrusted to the Muses. They taught him the art of prediction, divination, the healing power of plants and everything related to medicine based on herbalism. They also taught him beekeeping, different ways of cultivating olive trees and the art of hunting. That is why the olive tree was domesticated, and following his teachings it spread as an agricultural crop of the highest priority throughout the Mediterranean and later on, to the world.