cf. the scholia to Homer, Iliad 5.196 and 8.564, where the headword (which can be variously accented) occurs.
Both the headword itself, o)/lura, and the first gloss, zeia/, mean coarse grain or coarse wheat. Spelt, Triticum spelta, is mentioned by (e.g.) Herodotus 2.36.2: "while others live on wheat and barley, Egyptians consider it the greatest shame to live on them; they prepare their bread from olyra, which some call zeia". However, Egyptians used mainly emmer, T. dicoccoides. Spelt and emmer (and also einkorn) are early types of wheat which have glumes and seedcovers that are difficult to release by threshing. "Naked" wheat, T. aestivum s.l., leaves a clear kernel after threshing. The early wheats had a long lifetime and were probably consumed as gruel. They can still be found; they are disease-resistant and are undemanding, esp. spelt, as to the quality of the soil and other conditions.
Spelta itself is a word of Celtic origin, first occurring in the Diocletian's Price-Edict (301 CE).