LESBOS, an island in the Aegean sea, 7-10 m. from the coast of Mysia, north of the Gulf of Smyrna, formerly a sanjak in the archipelago vilayet of Turkey, but annexed since 1912 to Greece. Pop. (1920 and 1923 estimate) 205,602. The island is roughly triangular; the three points are Argennum on the north-east, Sigrium (Sigri) on the west, and Malea (Maria) on the south-east. It is divided into three districts, Mytilene or Kastro in the east, Molyvo in the north, and Calloni in the west. The Euripus Pyr rhaeus (Calloni) is a deep gulf on the S.W. between Sigrium and Malea with a small port at Sigri; the gulf of Hiera (Yero) or Olivieri (from its surroundings) lies behind Mytilene town: both have difficult entrances (Yero, however, is of naval value), and commerce is concentrated at the small safe harbour of Mytilene. The surface is rugged, the highest point, Mount Olympus (Hagios Elias) being 3,080 ft. The country is however very fertile in wine, oil and grain. Its chief produce now and principal export is olives. Soap, skins and valonea are also prepared, mules and cattle are bred, the sardine fishery is important, and antimony, marble and coal are found. The island has suffered from periodical earth quakes. There is a telegraph on the island, and a cable to the mainland and to Greece.
The chief town, Mytilene, pop. (1923 estimate) 39,733, was originally built on an island close to the eastern coast : afterwards it was joined to Lesbos by a causeway, and the city spread along the coast. There was a harbour on each side of the island; the southern forms the mediaeval and modern port. The island is now occupied only by the ruined mediaeval fortress. There are now 14 mosques and 7 churches, including a cathedral. Besides the five cities which gave the island the name of Pentapolis (Mytilene, Methymna, Antissa, Eresus, Pyrrha), there was a town called Arisba, perhaps Palaikastro, north-east of Calloni, destroyed by an earthquake in the time of Herodotus. Pyrrha (also Palai kastro) lay south-east of Calloni. Antissa on the north coast near Sigri, was destroyed by the Romans in 168 B.C. Eresus was on the south coast near Sigri. Methymna on the north, on the site of Molyvo, is still the second city of the island. Town walls and other buildings are on all these sites.
position of Lesbos near the old trade-route to the Hellespont marks it as an important site at all times. Greek tradition represented it as inhabited by aboriginal Pelasgi and immigrant Ionians. In historic times it was peopled by Aeolians who claimed to have migrated about 1050 B.C. from Boeotia; its nobles traced their pedigree to Agamemnon who conquered it in the Trojan War. Lesbos was the most prominent Aeolian settlement. Its commercial activity is attested by colonies in Thrace and the Troad, and by participation in the settlement of Naucratis in Egypt ; it was by its good harbour that Mytilene became the political capital. The climax of its prosperity was about 600 B.C., when Pittacus, appointed as aesymnetes (dictator), by his wise administration and legislation won a place among the Seven Sages of Greece. The lyric poetry of Greece owed much to
Lesbians of the 7th century, the musician Terpander and the dithyrambist Arion, and culminated under Pi.ttacus' contem poraries Alcaeus and Sappho (qq.v.). Other distinguished Les bians were the cyclic poet Lesches, the historian Hellanicus and the philosophers Theophrastus and Cratippus. In the 6th century the island declined, through protracted struggle with Athens for Sigeum on the Hellespont, and a naval defeat by Polycrates of Samos. The Lesbians readily submitted to Persia after the fall of Croesus of Lydia, and although hatred of their tyrant Coes, a Persian protege, drove them into the Ionic revolt they displayed poor spirit at the decisive battle of Lade. In the 5th century Lesbos long remained a privileged member of the Delian League (q.v.), with full self-administration, and the sole obligation of assisting Athens with a naval contingent. Neverthe less, early in the Peloponnesian War the oligarchy of Mytilene forced on a revolt, which was ended after a two years' siege of that town (429-427). The Athenians recalled their hasty resolve on a wholesale execution, but killed the ringleaders, confiscated the land and established a garrison. Thereafter Lesbos was re peatedly attacked by the Peloponnesians, and in 405 Mytilene wit nessed a naval battle between Callicratidas and Conon. In 389 most of the island was recovered for the Athenians by Thrasybu lus; in 377 it joined the Second Delian League, and remained throughout a loyal member, although its democracy was for a while supplanted by a tyranny. In 334 Lesbos served as a base for the Persian admiral Memnon against Alexander the Great ; for Perseus against Rome in the Third Macedonian War; and for Mithradates VI. of Pontus in 88 B.C. Mytilene, nevertheless, was raised by Pompey to the status of a free city, thanks no doubt to his confidant Theophanes, a native of it.
Antissa, Eresus and Pyrrha possess no separate history. Me thymna in the 5th and 4th centuries sometimes was a rival of Mytilene. During the Byzantine age the island flourished. In 1091 it fell to the Seljuks; in the next century repeatedly to the Venetians; in 1224 it was recovered by the Byzantine emperors, who in 1354 gave it to the Genoese family Gattilusio. Prospering under them Mytilene passed in 1462 under Turkish control, and had an uneventful history till its annexation to Greece, in 1912.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-See Herodotus ii. 178, iii. 39, vi. 8, 14; Thucydides iii. 2-50; Xenophon, Hellenica, ii.; Strabo xiii., pp. 617-619; S. Plehn, Lesbiacorum Liber (Berlin, 1828) ; C. T. Newton, Travels and Discoveries in the Levant (London, 1865) ; B. V. Head, Historia Numorum (Oxford, pp. 487-488; E. L. Hicks and G. F. Hill, Greek Historical Inscriptions (Oxford, 1901), Nos. 61, 94, Icll , 164 Conze, Reise auf der Insel Lesbos (1865) ; Koldewey, Antike Baureste auf Lesbos (Berlin, 18901.