Lesbos
Lesbos (now Lesvos or Mytilini)(see map: Greece and the Aegean world), the third largest Aegean island (1,630 sq. km.: 629 sq. mi.) after Crete and Euboea, 10 km. (6 mi.) from NW Asia Minor. It is divided into three lobes on the south side by the long, narrow-mouthed gulfs of Kalloni and Gera. The volcanic western and northern mountains rise to 968 m. (3,176 ft.); the SE hills are greener and more fertile. Alluvium (partly marshy) occurs around the gulfs and in the east, where Thermi (an important bronze-age site) has hot springs.
Lesbos was usually divided between five competing poleis: Mytilene (the most powerful), Methymna, Pyrrha, Antissa, and Eresus. A sixth, Arisbe (near Kalloni), was absorbed by Methymna in the Archaic period. Some of the towns had land in Asia Minor. Settlement is relatively dispersed: there are important rural sanctuaries at...
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