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Location information

Listed 13 sub titles with search on: Mythology for destination: "LESVOS Island NORTH AEGEAN".


Mythology (13)

Historic figures

Lesbus

Lesbus, (Lesbos). A son of Lapithus, grandson of Aeolus, who married Methymna, daughter of Macareus. He succeeded his father-in-law, and gave his name to the island over which he reigned.

Lesbos

Lesbos, according to tradition, was named for son of Lapithos, the descendant of Deucalion and Hellen, and grandson of Aiolos, founder of the Aiolian tribe.

Settlers

Gras

Aeolian colonization, they say, preceded the Ionian colonization by four generations, but suffered delays and took a longer time; for Orestes, they say, was the first leader of the expedition, but he died in Arcadia, and his son Penthilus succeeded him and advanced as far as Thrace sixty years after the Trojan War, about the time of the return of the Heracleidae to the Peloponnesus; and then Archelaus the son of Penthilus led the Aeolian expedition across to the present Cyzicene near Dascylium; and Gras, the youngest son of Archelaus, advanced to the Granicus River, and, being better equipped, led the greater part of his army across to Lesbos and occupied it. (Strabo 13.1.3)

Gras the son of Echelas the son of Penthilus the son of Orestes was the leader, who was destined to occupy the land between Ionia and Mysia, called at the present day Aeolis; his ancestor Penthilus had even before this seized the island of Lesbos that lies over against this part of the mainland.

Pylaeus

The Lesbians say that their people were placed under the command of Pylaeus, the man whom the poet calls the ruler of the Pelasgians, and that it is from him that the mountain in their country is still called Pylaeus.

Argives & Thassalians settled Lesbos

Dionysius (i. 18) says that the first Pelasgian colony was led by Macar to Lesbos, after the Pelasgi had been driven out of Thessaly.
Diodorus Siculus (v. 81) gives a different account of this colony. He says that Xanthus, the son of Triopus, chief of the Pelasgi from Argos, settled first in Lycia, and afterwards crossed over with his followers into Lesbos, which he found unoccupied, and divided among them. This was seven generations before the flood of Deucalion. When this occurred Lesbos was desolated, and Macareus, grandson of Zeus (according to Hesiod), occupied it a second time, and the island received its name from his son-in-law.

Enalus

Enalus, (Enalos). The Penthelides, the first settlers in Lesbos, had received an oracle from Amphitrite commanding them to sacrifice a bull to Poseidon and a virgin to Amphitrite and the Nereides, as soon as they should, on their journey to Lesbos, come to the rock Mesogeion. The leaders of the colonists accordingly caused their daughters to draw lots, the result of which was, that the daughter of Smintheus or Phineus was to be sacrificed. When she was on the point of being thrown into the sea, her lover, Enalus, embraced her, and leaped with her into the deep. But both were saved by dolphins. Once the sea all around Lesbos rose in such high billows, that no one ventured to approach it; Enalus alone had the courage to do so, and when he returned from the sea, he was followed by polypi, the greatest of which was carrying a stone, which Enalus took from it, and dedicated in a temple. (Plut Sept. Sapient. Conviv. p. 163, c, de Sollert. animal. p. 984. d.)

This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks


Kings

Penthilus

Bastard son of Orestes by Erigone, conquers Lesbos.

Epopeus

King of Lesbos, father of Nyctimene.

Heroines

Isse, Issa

Daughter of the Lesbian king Macareus, who is said to have been seduced by Apollo under the form of a shepherd.
The modern Lissa; a small island in the Adriatic Sea, with a town of the same name, off the coast of Dalmatia, said to have derived its name from Issa, daughter of Macareus of Lesbos, who was beloved by Apollo. (Ovid, Met.vi. 124). The island was inhabited by a hardy race of sailors, whose barks (lembi Issaei) were much prized.

Gods & heroes related to the location

Odysseus & Philomeleides

Ancient myths

Nyctymine

The daughter of Epopeus, king of Lesbos, who unknowingly had intercourse with her father: when she discovered it, she fled in despair to the woods, where she was changed by Minerva into a night owl.

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