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The rich mythology of the island started when the leader
of Lesvos, Makaras, gave the name of his son-in-law, Lesvos, to the island.
During that period the first cities were founded and was named after Makara's
daughters, Mitilini, Issa, Antissa, Mithumna, Arisbi and Eressos, which
was named after the son of Makara, Eresos.
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Homer mentions to his
poems that the story of the island begun during the first years
of the Trojan War and Brisiida who was the cause of Achilles'
anger against Agamemnon when he stole her from him.
Researches have shown that the island was inhabited since the
Neolithic period with the presence of a remarkable civilization
during the period of the copper.
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Exhibits show that the
island's civilization was influenced by the neighboring Troy.
The ancient history of the island begun in 546 BC, with the
Persians who dominated the island. After a series of battles
and revolutions they finally managed to set the island free
in 472 BC by taking part in the Athenian alliance. The Athenians
and the Spartans later dominated Lesvos.
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In 88 BC the Romans dominated it. This is the
beginning of a period where the island managed to gain some kind
of autonomy from the Pompeio because of the historian Thepofanis
Mitilinaios.
After the division of the Roman Empire and during the Byzantine
period, the island has successively sacked the Slaves, Sarakinous,
Venetians and Grusades.
The island was under the domination of Gatelouzos in 1354 where
art, education and trade were developed during his domination.
The island's prosperity does not last long; nature destroyed the
island with a catastrophic earthquake.
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Lesvos was under the domination of the sultan
Mohamed II, in 1462. The Turkish fanaticism made the spirit
of the island lethargic. But the church created oasis for
the education and cultivation of the inhabitants, inside the
monasteries, in order to keep the idea of a free nation, alive.
The Turks fortified the island, creating fortresses in order
to be protected from the Russian descends.
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Setting on fire frigates of Dimitris Papanikolis,
many inhabitants of Lesvos were killed. But that wasn't the only
disaster in the island. Nature stroked one more time the island
with a catastrophic earthquake in 1867, causing the death of many
people and huge material destructions.
The difficult times of the island came to the end on November
1912 when Paulo Kountouriotis and the treaty of Lozani set the
island free in1923.
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