LEMNOS (mod. Limnos)

This article appears in Volume V16, Page 413 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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LEMNOS (mod. Limnos) , an island in the northern part of the Aegean Sea. The Italian form of the name, Stalimene, i.e. is Tip Aivov, is not used in the island itself, but is commonly employed in geographical works. The island, which belongs to Turkey, is of considerable size: Pliny says that the coast-line measured 1I21 Roman miles, and the area has been estimated at 150 sq. m. Great part is mountainous, but some very fertile valleys exist, to cultivate which 2000 yoke of oxen are employed. The hill-sides afford pasture for 20,000 sheep. No forests exist on the island; all

wood

is brought from the coast of

Rumelia

RUMELIA, or ROUMELIA (Turkish Rumili, " the land of the Romans," i.e. the East Roman or Byzantine empire)

or from Thasos. A few mulberry and fruit trees grow, but no olives. The population is estimated by some as high as 27,000, of whom 2000 are Turks and the rest Greeks, but other authorities doubt whether it reaches more than half this number. The

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

towns are Kastro on the western coast, with a population of 4000 Greeks and Soo Turks, and Mudros on the southern coast. Kastro possesses an excellent harbour, and is the seat of all the trade carried on with the island. Greek, English and Dutch consuls or consular agents were formerly stationed there; but the whole trade is now in Greek hands. The archbishops of Lemnos and Ai Strati, a small neighbouring island with 2000 inhabitants, resides in Kastro. In ancient times the island was sacred to

Hephaestus

HEPHAESTUS

, who as the legend tells fell on Lemnos when his father Zeus hurled him headlong out of

Olympus

OLYMPUS

. This tale, as well as the name Aethaleia, sometimes applied to it, points to its volcanic character. It is said that fire occasionally blazed forth from Mosychlos, one of its mountains; and Pausanias (viii. 33) relates that a small island called Chryse, off the Lemnian coast, was swallowed up by the sea. All volcanic action is now extinct.
The most famous product of Lemnos is the medicinal earth, which is still used by the natives. At one time it was popular over western Europe under the name terra sigillata. This name, like the Gr. Amaeta a4payyis, is derived from the stamp impressed on each piece of the earth ; in ancient times the stamp was the head of Artemis. The Turks now believe that a vase of this earth destroys the effect of any poison drunk from it-a belief which the ancients attached rather to the earth from Cape Kolias in Attica. Galen went to see the digging up of this earth (see Kuhn, Medic. Gr. Opera, xii. 172 sq.) ; on one day in each year a priestess performed the due ceremonies, and a waggon-load of earth was dug out. At the present time the day selected is the 6th of August, the feast of Christ the Saviour. Both the Turkish hodja and the Greek priest are present to perform the necessary ceremonies; the whole process takes place before daybreak. The earth is sold by apothecaries in stamped cubical blocks. The hill from which the earth is dug is a dry mound, void of vegetation, beside the

village

VILLAGE

of Kotschinos, and about two hours from the site of Hephaestia. The earth was considered in ancient times a. cure for old festering wounds, and for the bite of poisonous

snakes

SNAKES

.
The name Lemnos is said by Hecataeus (ap. Steph. Byz.) to have been a title of Cybele among the Thracians, and the earliest inhabitants are said to have been a Thracian tribe, called by the Greeks Sinties, i.e. " the robbers." According to a famous legend the women were all deserted by their husbands, and in revenge murdered every man on the island. From this barbarous act, the expression Lemnian deeds, Ai7,ieia ipya, became proverbial. The

Argonauts

ARGONAUTS ('Apyovavrat, the sailors of the "Argo ")

landing soon after found only women in the island, ruled over by Hypsipyle, daughter of the old king Thoas. From the

Argonauts

ARGONAUTS ('Apyovavrat, the sailors of the "Argo ")

and the Lemnian women were descended the race called Minyae, whose king Euneus, son of Jason and Hypsipyle, sent wine and provisions to the Greeks at Troy. The Minyae were expelled by a Pelasgian tribe who came from Attica. The historical element underlying these traditions is probably that the

original

ORIGINAL

Thracian people were gradually brought into communication with the Greeks as navigation began to unite the scattered islands of the Aegean (see JASON); the Thracian inhabitants were barbarians in comparison with the Greek mariners. The

worship

WORSHIP (i.e. " worth-ship," O. Eng. weor8scipe)

of Cybele was characteristic of Thrace, whither it spread from Asia Minor at a very early period, and it deserves notice that Hypsipyle and Myrina (the name of one of the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

towns) are Amazon names, which are always connected with Asiatic Cybele-

worship

WORSHIP (i.e. " worth-ship," O. Eng. weor8scipe)

. Coming down to a better authenticated period, we find that Lemnos was conquered by Otanes, one of the generals of Darius
Hystaspis; but was soon reconquered by Miltiades, the tyrant Etudes critiques et biographiques (1862). He died in Paris on of the Thracian Chersonese. Miltiades afterwards returned to ! the 14th of December 1892.

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