LESBOS (Mytilene, Turk. Midullu)  , an island in the Aegean sea, off the coast of Mysia, N. of the entrance of the Gulf of Smyrna, forming the main part of a sanjak in the archipelago vilayet of European Turkey . It is divided into three districts, Mytilene or Kastro in the E., Molyvo in the N., and Calloni in the W . Since the middle ages it has been known as Mytilene, from the name of its principal town . Strabo estimated the circumnference of the island at iloo stadia, or about 138 m., and Scylax reckoned it seventh in size of the islands of the Mediterranean . The width of the channel between it and the mainland varies from 7 to 10 M . The island is roughly triangular in shape; the three points are Argennum on the N.E., Sigrium (Sigri) on the W., and Malea (Maria) on the S.E . The Euripus Pyrrhaeus (Calloni) is a deep gulf on the west between Sigrium and 1Vlalea . The country though mountainous is very fertile, Lesbos being celebrated in ancient times for its wine, oil and grain . Homer refers to its wealth . Its chief produce now is olives, which also form its principal export . Soap, skins and valonea are also exported, and mules and cattle are extensively bred . The sardine fishery is an important trade, and antimony, marble and coal are found on the island .

The

surface is rugged and mountainous, the highest point, Mount Olympus (Hagios Elias) being 3080 ft . The island has suffered from periodical earthquakes . The roads were remade in 1889, and there is telegraphic communication on the island, and to the mainland by cable . The ports are Sigri and Mytilene . The Gulf of Calloni and Hiera or Olivieri can only be entered by vessels of small draught . The chief town, called Mytilene, is built in amphitheatre shape round a small hill crowned by remains of an ancient fortress . There are now 14 mosques and 7 churches, including a cathedral . It was originally built on an island close to the eastern coast of Lesbos, and afterwards when the town became too large for the island, it was joined to Lesbos by a causeway, and the city spread along the coast . There was a harbour on each side of the small island . Maloeis, by some surmised to be the northern of these, was not far away . Besides the five cities which gave the island the name of Pentapolis (Mytilene, Methymna, Antissa, Eresus, Pyrrha), there was a town called Arisba, destroyed by an earth-quake in the time of Herodotus . Professor Conze thinks that this is the site now called Palaikastro, N.E. of Calloni .

Pyrrha

lay S.E. of Calloni, and is now also called Palaikastro . Antissa was on the N. coast near Sigri . It was destroyed by the Romans in 168 B.C . Eresus was also near Sigri on the S. coast . Methymna was on the N. coast, on the site of Molyvo, still the second city of the island . The name Methymna is derived from the wine (Gr. pfOv) for which it was famous . Considerable remains of town walls and other buildings are to be seen on all these sites . (E . GR.) their administration Mytilene passed in 1462 under Turkish control, and has since had an uneventful history . The present population is about 130,000 of whom 13,000 are Turks and Moslems and 117,000 Greeks . See Strabo xiii. pp . 617-619; Herodotus ii .

178, Hi . 39, vi . 8, 14;

Thucydides iii . 2-50; Xenophon, Hellenica, i., ii.; S . Plehn, Lesbiacorum Liber (Berlin, 1828) ; C . T . Newton, Travels and Discoveries in the Levant (London, 1865) ; B . V . Head, Historia Numorum (Oxford, 1887), pp . 487-488; E . L . Hicks and G .

F . Hill,

Greek Historical Inscriptions (Oxford, 1901), Nos . 61, 94, 101, 139, 164; Conz, Reise auf der Insel Lesbos (1865) ; Koldewey, Antike Baureste auf Lesbos (Berlin, 1890) . (M . O . B .