History of Lesvos
History of Lesvos |
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Lesvos was inhabited by the Pelasgians in the 15th century BC. Achaians flooded the island during the Trojan war, because of the proximity of Lesvos with Troy. According to Iliad, Achilles raided Lesvos frequently, and during one of his raids he captured Brysiida, the young girl that ignited Achille's feud with Agamemnon, the Achaian chief. After the capture of Troy, the Aeolians, a new wave of Greeks, settled the island. According to the tradition, the Aeolian dynasty of Penthilides ruled the island since the 11th century BC. By the 7th century the Lesvians had expanded over the adjacent Asia Minor shore. Strongly linked with the Greek colonies of the Asia Minor shore and with the metropolitan centers in the continental Greece, the island followed the historic voyage of the Hellenism throughout all its phases.
The Mytilineans spoke the Aeolic dialect, similar to the Ionic. The Aeolic style, forebear of the classic Ionic style, is the first among the Greek styles to bear the two symmetric snails, as we can see from the capitals that remain in the temple of Napaios Apollon in central Lesvos - near the village of Agia Paraskevi, and in the archaeological museum in Mytilini. |
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Being a large island, Lesvos constituted a great naval force which lasted for a long period of time. After a short Persian occupation (492-479 BC), Lesvos participated in the Athenian League, but during the Peloponnesian War, the island rebelled and fought together with Sparta. In 427 BC Mytilini was subjected to the wrath of the athenians, who demolished its walls and killed 1,000 Mytilineans. In 405 BC Sparta occupied the island until 334BC when the Lesbians made an alliance with Alexander the Great; after Alexander's death the island came under the Ptolemaic rule, and in 88 BC it was conquered by the Romans.
During the Byzantine era the island was used as an exile place for eminent personalities, such as Irene the Athenian and Constantine Monomachos the 9th. In 1354 Lesvos was offered as a dowry to the Genovese noble Frangisco Gatelouzi. |
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On 14 October 1462 the island was subjected to the forces of Moameth the Conqueror. After the end of the Russian-Turkish war of 1774 the turkish grasp on the island relaxed, allowing partial freedoms to the Christian subjects. Gradually Lesvos prospered and started preparing the revolution against the Turks. Nevertheless, the brave revolution of the Mytilineans, in 1824, was covered with blood.
| On 8 November 1912 Mytilini was liberated by the Hellenic Navy led by admiral Koundouriotis, and after the Treaty of Athens in 1914 the island formally joined Greece. |
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