LIPA.RI ISLANDS, a group of volcanic islands north of the eastern portion of Sicily (anc. AtbXov vikroc or Aeoliae Insulae),— Lipari (Lipara, pop. in 1931, 14,101), Stromboli (Strongyle), Salina (Didyme, pop. in 1921, 1,269), Filicuri (Phoenicusa), Alicudi (Ericusa), Vulcano (Hiera, Therasia or Thermissa), the mythical abode of Hephaestus, and Panaria (Euonymus). The island of Aiolie, the home of Aiolos, lord of the winds, which Ulysses twice visited in his wanderings, has generally been identi fied with one of this group, and they are now called Isole Eolie.
A colony of Cnidians and Rhodians was established on Lipara in 580-577 B.C. The inhabitants, allies of the Syracusans, were attacked by the Athenian fleet in 427 B.c., and by the Cartha ginians in 397 B.c., while Agathocles plundered a temple on Lipara in 304 B.C. During the Punic wars the islands were a Cartha ginian naval station until the Romans took possession in 252 B.C.
Sextus Pompeius also used them as a naval base. Under the Em pire, as at present, the islands served as a place of banishment for political prisoners. In the middle ages they frequently changed hands. Lipari contains the chief town (population in 1921, 5,631), which bears the same name and had municipal rights in Roman times. It is the seat of a bishop. The isle contains sulphur springs
and vapour baths, which were known and used in ancient times. It has a ruined 16th century castle. Pumicestone is mined and exported, and the obsidian of Lipari was much exported in pre historic times, and has even been found at Knossos.
Stromboli, 22 m. N.E. of Lipari, is constantly active, ejecting gas and lava at brief intervals, and always visible at night. Salina.
3 m. N.W. of Lipari, consisting of the cones of two extinct vol canoes, that on the south-east, Monte Salvatore (3,155 ft.), being the highest point in the islands, is the most fertile of the whole group and produces good Malmsey wine: it takes its name from the salt-works on the south coast. Vulcano, m. S. of Lipari, contains a still smoking crater, which erupted in 1888-90 and did much damage.