Eleolado - olive oil

They used to anoint the newborn with olive oil. The midwife would apply oil on the baby or the people who were present would dip their finger in the oil and anoint the baby, giving the baby their blessing. They would also mix the oil with salt to anoint the baby. In some villages they would first anoint the baby with oil, then with salt and wine, and then bathe the baby, repeating this process for 40 days. After childbirth, it was common practice to apply soufes to the mother, i.e. poultices and suppositories on the mother's genitals. These were wrapped in a cloth smeared with oil and placed inside the vagina or the new mother would sit on it, to warm herself up and cauterise herself. It was believed that this procedure would prevent infection and the uterus would resume its position. When a child had abdominal pain, they would rub it with olive oil or put some oil in the child's navel. Mastic oil was also used for rubbing. In the village of Melanagra, oil from the vigil oil lamp of Virgin Mary of Kanakaria was used to make a cross on the baby. Infertility has long been a plague and a curse for a family, especially for a woman. Suppositories were one of the methods used to deal with this problem. They would use cotton or cocoon with hot oil or mastic oil (Protopapa 2009, 100,109, 211, 231, 233, 335, 414, 462-463, 477, 482, 527, 558-560, 564-568, 574-575).

George I. Mavrokordatos in his book "Δίκωμο: Το χθες και το σήμερα" (Dikomo: Yesterday and Today) notes that people were using oil for ear pain and abdominal pain (Mavrokordatos, 2003, 311).

Archimandrite Kyprianos, in his 'History', published in the 18th century in Venice, gives information about the production of edible oils on the island; olive oil and sesame oil: "The olive groves yield a sufficient quantity of oil so that, when they prosper, the production of oil is sufficient for three years, and sometimes it is even sufficient for exports [...] The oil of wild olive trees is excellent and fine. When sesame oil is used as oil lamp, it is better than common oil' (Archimandrite Kyprianos 1788, 538). However, a century later, the overabundance of olive oil that Kyprianos describes seems to no longer be the case. Athanasios Sakellarios (1826-1901), a scholar of Cyprus history and an author, states that in 1890 the production of olive oil, which mainly was originating from the north of the island and from the Paphos region, was barely sufficient for the needs of the island's inhabitants (Sakellarios 1890). Moreover, it seems that at the end of the 19th century the organoleptic properties of Cypriot olive oil were of questionable quality. The German Magda Ohnefalsch-Richter, who lived in Cyprus in the period 1894-1912, reported what A. Gandry had already noted in 1855 in his book Scientific Research in the East concerning the quality of Cypriot olive oil: "The art of keeping olive oil pure is unknown to them. They mix together the unripe green olives, the overly ripe ones and the ones that are shrivelled up. As a result, the oil produced is so bitter and has such a strong taste that a European living in a country full of olive trees is forced to import olive oil from France or Italy. The use of old, wooden presses are not frequently washed, and the olive oil has a rancid smell" (Ohnefalsch-Richter, 1994).

The list of products that were exported in large quantities from Cyprus during the rule of Franks or Turks does not include olive oil. The fact is not surprising, since the quantity of olive oil produced in Cyprus varies. Besides, the people in Cyprus had to consume other types of oil alongside olive oil, such as trimitheleo, bakolado and sesame oil which were mainly used when baking particular types of dough (Ionas 2001, 213).