Lesvos (Mytilini)

Introducing Lesvos (Mytilini)

The third-largest island in Greece after Crete and Evia, Lesvos (Mytilini) is mountainous and fertile and prone, it seems, to always doing things in a big way. Some 11 million olive trees cling to Lesvos’ rugged hills, yielding delectable, golden-hued oil by the tonne; the island also produces half of the world’s ouzo, the aniseed-flavoured firewater revered as Greece’s national spirit.

Culturally, too, Lesvos has gone above and beyond. From the musical composer Terpander and poet Arion of the 7th century BC, to 20th-century figures like Nobel Prize–winning poet Odysseus Elytis and primitive painter Theofilos, the island has given birth to artists of genius. Under the great ancient philosophers Aristotle and Epicurus, an exceptional philosophical academy flourished on the island. Most famous, however, is Sappho, one of ancient Greece’s greatest poets. Her sensuous, passionate poetry, apparently created for a select group of female devotees, has fuelled a modern-day cult that draws lesbians from around the world to pay homage to the poet in Skala Eresou, the west Lesvos beach village where she was born around 630 BC.

Appropriately enough, the stark natural beauty that inspired all these artists and thinkers itself derived from a great event: a massive prehistoric volcanic eruption that buried and transformed its surroundings, making western Lesvos into a treasury of prehistoric fossils and gems, and the only place outside of the USA with a petrified forest.

Indeed, it is the natural abundance that primarily draws visitors. Hiking the idyllic southern olive groves as well as bird-watching – the island is the transit point and home to over 279 species of birds ranging from raptors to waders – are both very popular. Lesvos’ long coastline, hardly touched by package tourism, is dotted with therapeutic hot springs and pristine beaches.

The island’s festive nature, visible in the chic cafés and restaurants of the capital, Mytilini, comes to life with the midsummer panigyria, dating back distantly to Lesvos’ passionate pagan past, with plenty of food, drink and music, as well as the racing of beautifully girded horses and the odd bull sacrifice.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009