Lesvos vacations
The green island of Lesvos or Mytilene is a popular summer resort without being too busy.
This is where the 7th century BC poetess Sappho lived, as well as Alcaios, another ancient poet and allegedly Sapphos lover.
The philosopher Theophrastus was born here in the 4th century BC and the poet and Nobel Prize winner Odysseas Elytis also came from Lesbos.
The Greeks call the island Lesvos or Mytilene after its capital.
It is large and has a wonderful landscape, well worth exploring on your own.
Because there is a big military camp here where young Greeks do their national service, the nightlife gets quite wild, without being extreme like on Ios or Kos.
There are very quiet villages on Lesbos for those that want their peace and quiet and it is very close to Turkey.
Lesbos transliterated from Modern Greek as Lesvos, sometimes also referred to as Mytilini after its major city Mytilene is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea.
It has an area of 630 square miles with 320 kilometres of coastline,
making it the third largest Greek island and the largest of the numerous Greek islands scattered in the Aegean.
It is separated from Turkey by the narrow Mytilini Strait.
It is also a separate peripheral unit of the North Aegean and the only municipality of the peripheral unit.
Its population is approximately 90000, a third of which lives in its capital, Mytilene, in the southeastern part of the island.
The remaining population is distributed in small towns and villages.
The largest are Kalloni, the Gera Villages, Plomari, Agiassos, Eresos, and Molyvos the ancient Mythymna.
Mytilene was founded in the 11th century BC by the family Penthilidae, who arrived from Thessaly and ruled the city-state until
a popular revolt in 590 BC led by Pittacus of Mytilene ended their rule.
According to Classical Greek mythology, Lesbos was the patron god of the island.
Macar was reputedly the first king whose many daughters bequeathed their names to some of the present larger towns.
In Classical myth his sister, Canace, was killed to have him made king.
The place names with female origins are likely to be much earlier settlements named after local goddesses, who were replaced by gods.
Homer refers to the island as Macaros edos, the seat of Macar.
Hittite records from the Late Bronze Age name the island Lazpa and must have considered
its population significant enough to allow the Hittites to borrow their gods presumably idols to cure their king when the local gods were not forthcoming.
Find out more about this Greek sailing vacation here: www.lesvos.gr