Mithymna
Methymna is also an archaeological site in the prefecture of Chania. See Methymna, CreteMithymna (Greek:Μήθυμνα), ancient form
Methymna, is the second most important town on
Lesbos. Mithymna is also the seat of the municipality as well as the province. It is also known by the name
Molyvos or
Molivos used under the
Ottoman Empire (CE). Mithymna is located NE of
Eressos, N of
Plomari and NW of
Mytilene.
The town is on the northern part of the island, just some 6 km from the popular beach town of
PetraOne of the most noticeable features of the town is the old
Genoese fortress on the hill in the middle of the town.
As
Methymna, the city was once the prosperous second city of Lemnos, with a
founding myth that identified an
eponymous Methymna (Greek: Μήθυμνα), the daughter of
Macar and married to the personification of Lesbos (mythologized social geography that appears on the city's coinage [
1].) In the
Peloponnesian War, Methymna played an important role (
Thucydides, III, ii, 18; vi, 85; vii, 57;
Xenophon, Hellen., I, vi, 14). The poets praised the excellent wine of Methymna (
Virgil,
Georgics, II, 90;
Ovid,
Ars Amatoria, I, 57;
Horace,
Satire II, 8, 50;
Odes, I, 17, 21). Methymna was the birthplace of the legendary poet
Arion and probably also of the historian Myrsilus. Here was the shrine of the hero
Palamedes, mentioned in the early third-century AD
Life of Apollonius of Tyana (book v.13).
As a Christian city, Methymna was the seat of a bishop. In 640, Methymna was mentioned in the
Ecthesis, pseudographically attributed to
Epiphanius of Salamis, as an autocephalous archdiocese, and around 1084, it was made a metropolitan see under
Alexius I Comnenus. The
Fourth Crusade brought Latin control, on the strength of which the
Roman Catholic Church maintains a purely
titular see of Methymna; there were 40 Roman Catholics in 1908. (CE)
The fortress was probably constructed after the mid-13th century, as a defense against Franks and Turks alike.
The Ottomans took the city in 1462. As
Molivo under the
Ottoman Empire, the city was a
kaza of the
sanjak of Metelin in the
vilayet of
Rhodes. After the defeat of the Ottomans in the
First Balkan War (1913),
Greece annexed Lesbos in 1914.
| Year | Population | Change | Municipal population | Change |
|---|
| 1981 | 1,427 | - | - | - |
| 1991 | 1,333 | - | -94/6.59% | 2,359 |
* http://lesvos.com/molyvos.html
*
Methymna Fortress*
Ancient coinage of Lesbos: Metthymna*
Catholic Encyclopedia: Methymna (cited as
CE)
*
Mapquest - Mithymna, street map not yet available
*Coordinates:
*
Communities of the Lesbos prefecture
