Listed 20 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "ERESSOS-ANTISSA Municipality LESVOS" .
ERESSOS-ANTISSA (Municipality) LESVOS
ERESSOS (Ancient city) LESVOS
The name Eresos has its roots in mythology. Macar or Macareus, the
mythical leader of the Pelasgian people, was the first founder and king of Lesbos.
Perhaps this is why Homer called Lesbos "Makaria". According to mythology,
Makar had five daughters: Mytilene, Issa, Antissa, Methymna and Arisbe after whom
the five cities were named. The King also had four sons: Kydrolaus, Neandros,
Leuchippus and Eresus. Eresos was named after the latter who was the city's first
king.
Historical Overview
The first settlers of Eresus in the pre-hellenic times were probably
the Pelasgians, while major population shifts of the hellenic, Aeolian, Ionian
and Dorian tribes took place during the 11th and 9th century Β.C. The city of
Eresus was built on the present-day coastal location of Skala Eresos by the Achaean
or seafaring Aeolian settlers.
A multitude of scattered ruins all over the ancient city indicate
the brilliant and majestic constructions that once existed: the Agora, the Stadium,
the Theatre and the Prytaneum. The city was an important centre of trade and its
fine products reached as far as Egypt. Apart from trade and shipping the city's
population also took to the cultivation of the land. Eresus barley and sesame
seed were amongt the finest, and this accounts for the ear of barley, the emblem
which appears on the first coins of Eresus.
In 540 Β.C. Eresus was forced under Persian vassalage. The Persians
turned the naval force of Eresus to their advantage during their expeditions.
Thoughout the long struggle between the two great powers, Athens and
Sparta, Eresus repeatedly ranged itself on one side of the battlefield or the
other and finally acceded to the 2nd Athenian Alliance in 377 B.C. In the years
that followed, the town experienced political instability and the tyrants began
to play an important role.
Duing the Roman Times, Eresus knows particular prosperity, however
during the Byzantium it suffers the consequences of the Piracy of the Saracens,
the Venetians etc, who plunder Lesbos. In 1462 Lesbos falls into the hands of
the Turks and during the 17th century Eresos relocates to the midlands, to the
north-east of the old city and at a distance of 4 kilometres from the coastline.
In 1821, the first year of the Greek war of Independence, Eresos becomes
associated with a major naval tour de force, the first of the war for freedom.
Liberation arrives in 1912 and the beautiful town follows the fate of the rest
of the island and is at last incorporated in the national body (Modern Greece).
Coins of the city
It seems that Eresus minted its own coins which bore the inscription
OF ERESUS. However there is another coin as well, portraying the whole body or
just the head of Sappho. This is ample evidence that confirms Sappho did indeed
originate from Eresus. Yet, the representative coin of the city was a coin which
depicted a spike of wheat on one side, a symbol of cereal productivity, and the
head of Hermes or Apollo on the other side, which once again clearly indicates
the worship of Hermes and Apollo.
This extract is cited October 2004 from the URL below, which
contains images
MESSOTOPOS (Village) LESVOS
ANTISSA (Ancient city) LESVOS
Eth. Antissaios. A city of the island Lesbos, near to Cape Sigrium,
the western point of Lesbos (Steph. B. s. v. Antissa, following Strabo, p. 618).
The place had a harbour. The ruins found by Pococke at Calas Limneonas, a little
NE. of cape Sigri, may be those of Antissa. This place was the birth-place of
Terpander, who is said to be the inventor of the seven-stringed lyre. Antissa
joined the Mytilenaeans in their revolt from Athens in the Peloponnesian war B.C.
428, and successfully defended itself against the Methymnaeans who attacked it;
but after Mytilene had been compelled to surrender to the Athenians, Antissa was
recovered by them also (Thuc. iii. 18, 28). Antissa was destroyed by the Romans
after the conquest of Perseus, king of Macedonia (B.C. 168), because the Antissaeans
had received in their port and given supplies to Antenor, the admiral of Perseus.
The people were removed to Methymna. (Liv. xlv. 31; Plin. v. 31.)
Myrsilus (quoted by Strabo, p. 60) says, that Antissa was once an
island, and at that time Lesbos was called Issa; so that Antissa was named like
many other places, Antiparos, Antiphellus, and others, with reference to the name
of an opposite place. Pliny (ii. 89) places Antissa among the lands rescued from
the sea, and joined to the mainland; and Ovid (Met. xv. 287), where he is speaking
of the changes which the earth's surface has undergone, tells the same story.
In another passage (v. 31), where he enumerates the ancient names of Lesbos, Pliny
mentions Lasia, but not Issa. Lasia, however, may be a corrupt word. Stephanus
makes Issa a city of Lesbos. It is possible, then, that Antissa, when it was an
island, may have had its name from a place on the mainland of Lesbos opposite
to it, and called Issa.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited May 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ERESSOS (Ancient city) LESVOS
Eresos: Eth. Eresios, Eresieus. So called from Eresus the son of Macar.
(Steph. B. s. v.) Eressus, as it is in the text of Strabo (p. 618), was a city
of Lesbos, situated on a hill, and reaching down to the sea. From Eressus to Cape
Sigrium is 28 stadia, as the MSS. have it, which Casaubon (ed. Strab.) has changed
to 18. It was on the west side of the island, and its ruins are said to be at
some little distance from a place now called Eresso, which is situated on a hill.
Eressus joined Mytilene and other towns in Lesbos in the revolt from the Athenians
during the Peloponnesian War (B.C. 428); but it was compelled to surrender to
Paches, the Athenian commander, shortly after. (Thuc. iii. 25, 35.) There was
a fresh revolt from Athens (B.C. 412), and a fresh subjugation. (Thuc. viii. 23.)
It revolted a third time shortly after (Thuc. viii. 100), and was besieged by
Thrasybulus with an Athenian force, but he was obliged to give up the siege to
follow the Peloponnesians to the Hellespont. In B.C. 392 Thrasybulus lost many
ships in a storm off Eresus, but he recovered the town, with other places in Lesbos,
for the Athenians. (Diod. xiv. 94.)
Eresus is mentioned by Pliny (v. 31) as one of the existing cities
of Lesbos. Eresus was the birthplace of Tyrtamus, to whom his master Aristotle
gave the name of Theophrastus. Phanias, another of Aristotle's pupils, was also
a native of Eresus. According to the poet Archestratus, in his Gastronomia, quoted
by Athenaeus (iii. p. 111), if ever the gods eat flour, they send Hermes to buy
it at Eresus.
The name of the town on the coins is said to be always EPESION, with
one S.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited May 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
SIGRION (Ancient city) LESVOS
Sigrion. The westernmost promontory of the island of Lesbos, which now bears the
name of Sigri (Strab. xiii. pp. 616, 618.) Stephanus B. calls Sigrium a harbour
of Lesbos.
ANTISSA (Ancient city) LESVOS
A town on the west coast of Lesbos, though formerly on a small island opposite Lesbos, with which it afterwards united.
ERESSOS (Ancient city) LESVOS
or Eresus (on coins the name is always written Eresos). A city
of Lesbos, situated on a hill at a distance of twenty-eight stadia from Cape Sigrium.
It derives celebrity from having given birth to Theophrastus. Phanias, another
disciple of the great Stagirite, was likewise a native of this place. According
to Archestratus, quoted by Athenaeus, Eressus was famous for the excellence of
its wheaten flour.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ANTISSA (Ancient city) LESVOS
Antissa
is believed to be NW of the modern town of Skalokhori, on the peninsula called Nisi, Ovriokastro, or Kastro ton Genoveson, E of the place where the river Voulgaris issues into the Tsamourliman (Mud Harbor) and ca. 9 km NE of the modern market town of Antissa which was called Telonia during the Turkish period and up to the 1930s. There are smaller ruined settlements W of Skalokhori, near Liota on the bay of Gavathas, and also farther W between the bay of Pokhi and Orphikia in the area of Lapsarna. The site of Antissa, which was excavated before WWII, may also be the location of the Byzantine castle of Ag. Theodoroi whose name appears in old maps. During its independent period, Antissa was rarely on friendly terms with the neighboring state of Methymna, but those who survived after the destruction of the city in 167 B.C. were forced to incorporate with the Methymnians.
ERESSOS (Ancient city) LESVOS
The remains of the ancient city are near the Skala (harbor) of the modern inland town of Eresos, ca. 92 km from Mytilene. Strabo (13.618) mentions this site. The chief preserved antiquities are a part of the pre-Hellenistic and Hellenistic isodomic circuit wall, some remains of buildings, and the ruins of the ancient harbor. In 1931 a local archaeological collection was begun, which includes finds of various periods.
This extract is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Feb 2003 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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