Lesbos

For more information on Lesbos, visit Britannica.com.

Lesbos, largest of the Greek islands off the coast of Asia Minor. Its chief cities were Mytilēnē and Methymna. The poets Terpander, Arion, Sappho, and Alcaeus were born there. The poet Anacreon (mid-sixth century BC, a generation after Sappho) maliciously alludes to the island in a way that suggests that it was already known for the practice of female homosexuality, to which it has given its name. Lesbos formed part of the Delian League but (except for Methymna) revolted from Athens in 428 BC during the Peloponnesian War. It was subdued by an Athenian expedition in 427, and under the influence of Cleon the assembly at Athens voted that the whole population of Mytilene should be put to death or enslaved. On the following day the matter was reopened, and on the proposal of Diodotus the edict was revoked and a fast trireme sent to overtake the one already sent to carry out the decision. It arrived at Lesbos just in time to prevent the massacre; only the leaders of the revolt were put to death, and the land of the island (except for Methymna) was distributed among Athenian cleruchs.