LEMNOS, an island in the north of the Aegean Sea. area about 15° sq. miles. Pop. (1928) was 3,8o8. It is mountainous, with sheep pasture and very fertile valleys. No forests remain and all wood is brought from Thasos or the mainland. There are mul berries and other fruit crops, but no olives. The population is Greek, with a Turkish minority till recently. The chief towns are Kastro, on the west coast, with excellent harbour, foreign con sulates, and the archbishoprics of Lemnos and the neighbouring island of Ai-Strati (St. Eustratius) : Mudros on the south coast, at the head of a spacious landlocked bay of high naval value.
The most famous product of Lemnos is the medicinal earth, terra *Maki, formerly popular over western Europe, and still used locally. The name ( = Gr. Anyvia is derived from the stamp impressed on each piece; in ancient times the stamp was the head of Artemis. The earth was considered in ancient times a cure for old festering wounds, and for the bite of poisonous snakes. The Turks now believe that a vase of this earth destroys the effect of any poison drunk from it—a belief which the ancients attached to the earth from Cape Kolias in Attica. Galen went to see the digging of this earth ; on one day in each year a priestess performed the due ceremonies, and a wagon-load was dug out. At the present time the day is Aug. 6, the feast of Christ the Saviour. Till recently the Turkish hodja as well as the Greek priest were present to perform the ceremonies, which take place before daybreak. The earth is sold by apothecaries in stamped cubical blocks. The hill from which the earth is dug is a dry mound, void of vegetation, beside the village of Kotchinos, and about two hours from the site of Hephaestia (Palaiokastro) on the east coast. In ancient times the island was sacred to Hephaestus, who fell when Zeus hurled him out of Olympus. This tale, and the name Aethallia, were supported by stories of volcanic activity and subsidence of islets. But all such disturbance has ceased. The name Lemnos is said to be Thracian, and the earliest in habitants, the Sinties, have a Thracian tribe-name. The proverbial "Lemnian deeds" were the murder of all the men by the island women, on two traditional occasions. The Argonauts found only women there; whose queen Hypsipyle bore to Jason (q.v.) a son
Euneus, who reigned during the Trojan War. His "Minyan" subjects were expelled by the Pelasgians, and survivors found refuge in Sparta and colonized Thera later. The sojourn of the wounded Philoctetes in Lemnos during the Trojan War is the subject of Sophocles' Philoctetes.
Darius of Persia conquered Lemnos after the fall of Polycrates, but it was captured by Miltiades of Athens from the Thracian Chersonese, and remained an Athenian possession (secured by a cleruchy (q.v.) until Macedon acquired it. The Romans de clared it free in 197 B.C. but restored it to Athens in 166. From the Byzantine empire it passed to Greeks, Italians and Turks (1657), and was beseiged by Russians in 177o. All these changes reflect its great naval importance. In classical times Lemnos had two towns, Myrina (on the steep rock of Kastro) and Hephaestia (Palaeokastro) on the east coast, with a fine harbour, now silted.
LEMON, MARK (1809-7o), playwright and editor of Punch, was born in London on Nov. 3o, 1809. More than 6o of his melodramas, operettas and comedies were produced in London. At the same time he contributed to a variety of magazines and newspapers, and founded and edited the Field. In 1841 Lemon and Henry Mayhew conceived the idea of a humorous weekly paper to be called Punch, and when the first number was issued, in July 1841, were joint-editors and, with the printer and engraver, equal owners. The paper was for some time unsuccessful, Lemon keeping it alive out of the profits of his plays. On the sale of Punch Lemon became sole editor for the new proprietors, and under his control it became a power in English life. Lemon wrote a host of novelettes and lyrics, over a hundred songs, a few three-volume novels, several Christmas fairy tales and a volume of jests. He died at Crawley, Sussex, on May 23, 1870.