Place · island

Lesbos

Lesbos is a large Greek island in the north-eastern Aegean, close to the coast of Anatolia, with its chief town at Mytilene. Probably the Lazpa of Hittite texts, it was home in the archaic period to the poets Sappho and Alcaeus and to the rival cities of Mytilene and Methymna. From 1355 it was ruled by the Genoese Gattilusio family until the Ottoman conquest of 1462, and it joined Greece in 1912.

Lesbos
Image: Koutrolm · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 3 profiles

Regency of AlgiersFoundationChiosGovernanceAncient GreekOrigins, Grammar

Mentioned in 6 state histories

Seha River LandMethymnaMytileneSestosBeylik of ChakaLordship of Lesbos

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Lesbos. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/lesbos
MLA
“Lesbos.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/lesbos. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Lesbos.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/lesbos.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Lesbos’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/lesbos (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻