Lemnos Hotel
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Lemnos
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A few words about Lemnos:
Lemnos (ΛΗΜΝΟΣ in Greek), an island in the northern part of the Aegean Sea. The
island, part of the Greek prefecture of Lesvos, is of considerable size: the
area has been estimated at 476 kmē (150 sq.mi). A great part is mountainous,
but some very fertile valleys exist. The hillsides afford pasture for sheep. A
few mulberry and fruit trees grow, but no olives. The chief towns are Myrina
on the western coast, and Mudros on the southern coast. Myrina (aka Kastro)
possesses an excellent harbor, and is the seat of all the trade carried on
with the island.
Mythic Lemnos
In ancient times the island was sacred to Hephaestus, who as
the legend tells fell on Lemnos when his father Zeus hurled him headlong out
of Olympus. There he was cared for by the Sinties, according to Iliad I:590ff
or by Thetis (Apollodorus, Library I:3.5), and there with a Thracian nymph
Cabiro (a daughter of Proteus) he fathered a tribe called the Cabiroides.
Sacred rites dedicated to them were performed in the island.
Hephaestus' forge, which was located on Lemnos, as well as the name Aethaleia,
sometimes applied to it, points to its volcanic character. It is said that
fire occasionally blazed forth from Mosychlos, one of its mountains; and
Pausanias relates that a small island called Chryse, off the Lemnian coast,
was swallowed up by the sea. All volcanic action is now extinct.
The name Lemnos is said by Hecataeus to have been a title of Cybele among the
Thracians, and the earliest inhabitants are said to have been a Thracian
tribe, called by the Greeks Sinties, i.e. "the robbers".n
Apollodorus (Epitome I:9) records that when Dionysus found Ariadne abandoned
on Naxos, he brought her to Lemnos and there fathered Thoas, Staphylus,
Oenopion, and Peparethus. Pliny in Natural History (xxxvi. 13) speaks of a
remarkable labyrinth in Lemnos, which has not been identified in modern times.
According to a famous legend the women were all deserted by their husbands for
Thracian women, and in revenge they murdered every man on the island. From
this barbarous act, the expression Lemnian deeds became proverbial. The
Argonauts landing soon after found only women in the island, ruled over by
Hypsipyle, daughter of the old king Thoas. From the Argonauts and the Lemnian
women were descended the race called Minyae, whose king Euneus, son of Jason
and Hypsipyle, sent wine and provisions to the Greeks at Troy. The Minyae were
expelled by a Pelasgian tribe who came from Attica. The historical element
underlying these traditions is probably that the original Thracian people were
gradually brought into communication with the Greeks as navigation began to
unite the scattered islands of the Aegean; the Thracian inhabitants were
primitive in comparison with the Greek mariners.
The worship of Cybele was characteristic of Thrace, whither it spread from
Asia Minor at a very early period, and it deserves notice that Hypsipyle and
Myrina (the name of one of the chief towns) are Amazon names, which are always
connected with Asiatic Cybele-worship.
In another legend localized in Lemnos, Philoctetes was left there by the
Greeks on their way to Troy; and there he suffered ten years' agony from his
wounded foot, until Odysseus and Neoptolemus induced him to accompany them to
Troy. He is said by Sophocles to have lived beside Mount Hermaeus, which
Aeschylus makes one of the beacon points to flash the news of Troy's downfall
home to Argos.
Historical Lemnos
Coming down to a better authenticated period, we find that
Lemnos was conquered by Otanes, one of the generals of Darius Hystaspis; but
was soon (510 BC) reconquered by Miltiades, the tyrant of the Thracian
Chersonese. Miltiades afterwards returned to Athens, and Lemnos continued an
Athenian possession till the Macedonian empire absorbed it. The Romans
declared it free in 197 BC, but gave it over in 166 to Athens, which retained
nominal possession of it till the whole of Greece was made a Roman province.
After the division of the empire, Lemnos passed under the Byzantine emperors;
it shared in the vicissitudes of the eastern provinces, being alternately in
the power of Greeks, Italians and Turks, till finally the Turkish sultans
became supreme in the Aegean. In 1476 the Venetians successfully defended
Kotschinos against a Turkish siege; but in 1657 Kastro was captured by the
Turks from the Venetians after a siege of sixty-three days. Kastro was again
besieged by Russia in 1770. In 1912, Lemnos became part of Greece during the
First Balkan Wars.
Homer speaks as if there were one town in the island called Lemnos, but in
historical times there was no such place. There were two towns, Myrina, now
Kastro, and Hephaestia. The latter was the chief town; its coins are found in
considerable number, the types being sometimes the Athenian goddess and her
owl, sometimes native religious symbols, the caps of the Dioscuri, Apollo,
etc. Few coins of Myrina are known. They belong to the period of Attic
occupation, and bear Athenian types. A few coins are also known which bear the
name, not of either city, but of the whole island. The Lemnian language was
spoken on the island which was written in the Old Italic alphabet until 510 BC
which was replaced by the Greek language.
Modern Lemnos
Today's Lemnos or Limnos is an island that has about 30
villages and settlements. The province includes the island of Agios Efstratios
to the southwest.
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