Mytilene Μυτιλήνη
View of Mytilene.
Seal of Mytilene
Location
Mytilene
Coordinates	39°6′N 26°33′E / 39.1°N 26.55°E / 39.1; 26.55Coordinates: 39°6′N 26°33′E / 39.1°N 26.55°E / 39.1; 26.55
Location within the regional unit
Government
Country:	Greece
Region:	North Aegean
Regional unit:	Lesbos
Municipality:	Lesbos
Population statistics (as of 2001)
Municipal unit
- Population:	36,196
- Area:	107.460 km2 (41 sq mi)
- Density:	337 /km2 (872 /sq mi)
Other
Time zone:	EET/EEST (UTC+2/3)
Elevation (center):	8 m (26 ft)
Postal code:	811 00
Telephone:	22510
Auto:	MY
Website
www.mytilene.gr

Mytilene (Greek: Μυτιλήνη; Mitilini in Modern Greek) is a town and a former municipality on the island of Lesbos, North Aegean, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Lesbos, of which it is a municipal unit.^[1] It is the capital of the island of Lesbos. Mytilene, whose name is pre-Greek, is built on the southeast edge of the island. It is also the seat of a metropolitan bishop of the Orthodox church.

Geography[link]

Mytilene is linked with a highway numbered (GR-67) linking to Skala Eressou on the other side of the island of Lesbos. Farmlands surround Mytilene, the mountains cover the west and to the north. The airport is located a few kilometres south of town. The city was called Midilli during Ottoman times.

It is located in the southeastern part of the island, north and east of the Bay of Gera. It has a land area of 107.46 square kilometres (41.49 sq mi) and a population of 36,196 inhabitants (2001). With a population density of 336.8/km² it is by far the most densely populated municipal unit in Lesbos. The next largest towns in the municipal unit are Vareiá (pop. 1,254), Pámfila (1,247), Mória (1,207), and Loutrá (1,118).

History[link]

Pittacus of Mytilene (c. 640-568 BC), one of the Seven Sages of Greece; woodcut from the Nuremberg Chronicle.

The Cathedral of the city.

Belle epoque architecture style.

View of the port.

As an ancient city, lying off the east coast, Mytilene was initially confined to an island that later was joined to Lesbos, creating a north and south harbour.^{[citation needed]} Mytilene contested successfully with Methymna in the north of the island for the leadership of the island in the seventh century BC and became the centre of the island’s prosperous hinterland.^{[citation needed]} Her most famous citizens were the poets Sappho and Alcaeus and the statesman Pittacus (one of the Seven Sages of ancient Greece). The city was famed for its great output of electrum coins struck from the late 6th through mid 4th centuries BC.^[2] Mytilene revolted against Athens in 428 BC but was overcome by an Athenian expeditionary force. The Athenian public assembly voted to massacre all the men of the city and to sell the women and children into slavery but changed its mind the next day. A fast trireme sailed the 186 nautical miles (344 km) in less than a day and brought the decision to cancel the massacre.

Aristotle lived on Mytilene for two years, 337-335 BC, with his friend and successor, Theophrastus, after becoming the tutor to Alexander, son of King Philip II of Macedon.^[3][4]

The Romans, among whom was a young Julius Caesar, successfully besieged Mytilene in 80 BC. Although Mytilene supported the losing side in most of the great wars of the first century BC her statesmen succeeded in convincing Rome of her support of the new ruler of the Mediterranean and the city flourished in Roman times.

In AD 56 Paul the Apostle stopped there on the return trip of his third missionary journey(Acts 20:14). The novel Daphnis and Chloe, by Longus, is set in the country around it and opens with a description of the city.

In the Middle Ages, it was part of the Byzantine Empire. It was occupied for some time by the Seljuqs under Tzachas of Smyrna in 1085. In 1198, the Republic of Venice obtained the right to commerce from the city's port. In the 13th century, it was captured by the Emperor of Nicaea, Theodore I Laskaris. In 1335 the Byzantines, with the help of Ottoman forces, reconquered the island, then property of the Genoese nobleman Domenico Cattaneo. In 1354 emperor John V Palaiologos ceded Chios to the Genoese adventurer Francesco Gattilusio, who renovated the fortress in 1373. It remained in Genoese hands until 1453, when it was captured by the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II.

Demographics[link]

Education[link]

There are 15 primary schools in Mytilene, along with seven lyceums, and eight gymnasiums.^{[citation needed]} There are six university schools with 3671 undergraduates, the largest in the University of the Aegean). Here also is the Rector, the central administration of the Foundation^{[clarification needed]}, the Central Library and the Research Committee of Aegean University. The University of Aegean is housed in privately-owned buildings, in rented buildings located in the city centre, and in modern buildings on University Hill.

Industry[link]

A bottle of ouzo.

Mytilene has a port with ferries to the nearby islands of Lemnos and Chios and Ayvalık and at times Dikili in Turkey. The port also serves the mainland cities of Piraeus, Athens and Thessaloniki. One ship, named during the 2001 IAAF games in Edmonton Aeolos Kenteris, after Kostas Kenteris, used to serve this city (his hometown) with 6-hour routes from Athens and Thessaloniki. The main port serving Mytilene on the Greek mainland is Piraeus.

The city produces ouzo. There are more than 15 commercial producers on the island.

The city exports sardines harvested from the Bay of Kalloni and olive oil and woodwork.

Archaeology[link]

Panorama of Mytilene. .

Archaeological investigations at Mytilene began in the late 19th century when Robert Koldewey (later excavator of Babylon) and a group of German colleagues spent many months on the island preparing plans of the visible remains at various ancient sites like Mytilene. Significant excavations, however, do not seem to have started until after the First World War when in the mid 1920s Evangelides uncovered much of the famous theatre (according to Plutarch it was the inspiration for Pompey's theatre in Rome in 55 BC, the first permanent stone theatre in that city) on the hill on the western side of town. Subsequent work in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s by various members of the Archaeological Service revealed more of the theatre, including a Roman conversion to a gladiatorial arena. Salvage excavations carried out by the Archaeological Service in many areas of the city have revealed sites going back to the Early Bronze Age although most have been much later (Hellenistic and Roman). Particularly significant is a large stoa over a hundred metres long recently dug on the North Harbour of the city. It is clear from various remains in different parts of the city that Mytilene was indeed laid out on a grid plan as the Roman architect Vitruvius had written.^{[citation needed]}

View of the fortress.

The Liberty Statue of Mytilene.

Archaeological excavations carried out between 1984-1994 in the medieval castle of Mytilene by the University of British Columbia and directed by Caroline and Hector Williams revealed a previously unknown sanctuary of Demeter and Kore of late classical/Hellenistic date and the burial chapel of the Gattelusi, the medieval Genoese family that ruled the northern Aegean from the mid 14th-mid 15th centuries of our era. The Demeter sanctuary included five altars for sacrifices to Demeter and Kore and later also to Cybele, the great mother goddess of Anatolia. Among the discoveries were thousands of oil lamps, terracotta figurines, loom weights and other dedications to the goddesses. Numerous animal bones, especially of piglets, also appeared. The Chapel of St. John served as the church of the castle and as a burial place for the Gattelusi family and its dependents. Although conversion to a mosque after the Ottoman capture of the city in 1462 resulted in the destruction of many graves some remained. The great earthquake of February 1867 damaged the building beyond repair and it was demolished; the Turks built a new mosque over the ruins to replace it later in the 19th century.

Other excavations done jointly with the K' Ephoreia of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities near the North Harbour of the city uncovered a multiperiod site with remains extending from a late Ottoman cemetery (including a "vampire" burial, a middle aged man with 20 cm. spikes through his neck, middle and ankles) to a substantial Roman building constructed around a colonnaded courtyard (probably a tavern/brothel in its final phase in the mid 4th c. CE) to remains of Hellenistic structures and debris from different Hellenistic manufacturing processes (pottery, figurines, cloth making and dyeing, bronze and iron working) to archaic and classical levels with rich collections of Aeolic grey wares. A section of the late classical city wall runs across the site which was close to the channel that divided the mainland from the off shore island part of the city. Considerable remains of the two moles that protected the large North Harbour of the city are still visible just below or just breaking the surface of the sea; it functioned as the commercial harbour of the ancient city although today it is a quiet place where a few small fishing boats are moored.^{[citation needed]}

The city has two excellent archaeological museums, one by the south harbour in an old mansion and the other two hundred metres further north in a large new purpose built structure. The former contains the rich Bronze Age remains from Thermi, a site north of Mytilene dug by the British in the 1930s as well as extensive pottery and figurine displays; the former coach house accommodates ancient inscriptions, architectural pieces, and coins. The latter museum is especially rich in mosaics and sculpture, including the famous late Roman mosaic floor from the "House of Menander" with scenes from plays by that Athenian 4th c. BC playwright. There are also mosaics and finds from other Roman mansions excavated by the Archaeological Service under the direction of the archeologist Mme. Aglaia Archontidou-Argyri.

Climate[link]

Sporting teams[link]

• Aiolikos

Famous Mytilenians[link]

Ancient[link]

• Alcaeus (6th century BC), Greek poet.^[5]
• Pittacus (c. 640-568 BC), one of the Seven Sages of Greece.
• Hellanicus (mid-5th century BC), Greek historian.^[6]
• Chares (4th century BC), Greek historian and chamberlain to Alexander the Great.^[7]
• Scamon (4th century BC), Greek historian and son of Hellanicus of Mytilene.^[8]
• Praxiphanes (4th century BC), Greek philosopher.^[9]
• Aeschines, Greek rhetorician.^[10]
• Eunicus, Greek sculptor and silversmith.
• Hermarchus (3rd century BC), Greek philosopher.^[11]
• Potamon (1st century AD), Greek rhetorician.^[12]
• Lesbonax (1st century BC), Greek sophist and rhetorician.
• Crinagoras (70 BC-18 AD), Greek epigrammatist and ambassador.
• Theophanes, middle of first century BC, Greek statesman, close friend of Pompey the Great.^[13]
• Christopher (11th century), Greek poet.^[14]

Modern[link]

• Theophilos Hatzimihail (c. 1870-1934), Greek painter
• Hermon di Giovanno (c. 1900-1968), Greek painter
• Konstantinos Kenteris (1973-) (Greek athlete)
• Alexis Panselinos (1903–1984), Greek writer
• Tériade (1889–1983), Greek art critic, patron, and publisher

Fictional[link]

• Lysimachus, in Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre

Twin cities[link]

• Paphos, Cyprus

See also[link]

• List of settlements in Lesbos
• University of the Aegean

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mytilene

• Official website (Greek)
• Calendar of Lesvos

v t e   Prefectural Capitals of Greece Agios Nikolaos Alexandroupoli Amfissa Argostoli Arta Athens Chalcis Chania Chios Corfu Corinth Drama Edessa Eleusis Ermoupoli Florina Grevena Heraklion Igoumenitsa Ioannina Kalamata Karditsa Karpenisi Kastoria Katerini Kavala Kilkis Komotini Kozani Lamia Larissa Lefkada Livadeia Missolonghi Mytilene Nafplion Pallini Patras Piraeus Polygyros Preveza Pyrgos Rethymno Rhodes Serres Sparta Thessaloniki Trikala Tripoli Vathy Veria Volos Xanthi Zakynthos

v t e   Capitals of Regions of Greece Athens (Attica) Corfu (Ionian Islands) Heraklion (Crete) Ioannina (Epirus) Komotini (East Macedonia and Thrace) Kozani (West Macedonia) Lamia (Central Greece) Larissa (Thessaly) Mytilene (North Aegean) Patras (West Greece) Ermoupoli (South Aegean) Thessaloniki (Central Macedonia) Tripoli (Peloponnese)

Odysseas Elytis (Greek: Οδυσσέας Ελύτης born Οδυσσέας Αλεπουδέλης) (November 2, 1911 – March 18, 1996) was regarded as a major exponent of romantic modernism in Greece and the world. In 1979 he was bestowed with the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Biography[link]

Descendant of the Alepoudelis, an old industrial family from Lesbos, Elytis was born in Heraklion on the island of Crete, on November 2, 1911. His family later moved to Athens, where the poet graduated from high school and later attended courses as an auditor at the Law School at University of Athens.

In 1935 Elytis published his first poem in the journal New Letters (Νέα Γράμματα) at the prompting of such friends as George Seferis. His entry with a distinctively earthy and original form assisted to inaugurate a new era in Greek poetry and its subsequent reform after the Second World War.

From 1969-1972, under the Greek military junta of 1967–1974, Elytis exiled himself to Paris. He was romantically linked to the lyricist and musicologist Mariannina Kriezi, who subsequently produced and hosted the legendary children's radio broadcast "Here Lilliput Land". Elytis was intensely private and vehemently solitary in pursuing his ideals of poetic truth and experience.

The war[link]

In 1937 he served his military requirements. As an army cadet, he joined the National Military School in Corfu. During the war he was appointed Second Lieutenant, placed initially at the 1st Army Corps Headquarters, then transferred to the 24th Regiment, on the first-line of the battlefields. Elytis was sporadically publishing poetry and essays after his initial foray into the literary world.

He was a member of the Association of Greek Art Critics, AICA-Hellas, International Association of Art Critics.^[1]

Programme director for ERT[link]

He was twice Programme Director of the Greek National Radio Foundation (1945–46 and 1953–54), Member of the Greek National Theatre's Administrative Council, President of the Administrative Council of the Greek Radio and Television as well as Member of the Consultative Committee of the Greek National Tourist's Organisation on the Athens Festival. In 1960 he was awarded the First State Poetry Prize, in 1965 the Order of the Phoenix and in 1975 he was awarded the Doctor Honoris Causa in the Faculty of Philosophy at Thessaloniki University and received the Honorary Citizenship of the Town of Mytilene.

Travels[link]

During the years 1948-1952 and 1969-1972 he settled in Paris. There, he audited philology and literature seminars at the Sorbonne and was well received by the pioneers of the world's avant-garde (Reverdy, Breton, Tzara, Ungaretti, Matisse, Picasso, Francoise Gilot, Chagall, Giacometti) as Tériade's most respected friend. Teriade was simultaneously in Paris publishing works with all the renowned artists and philosophers (Kostas Axelos, Jean Paul Sartre, Francoise Gilot, Rene Daumal...) of the time. Elytis and Teriade had formed a strong friendship that solidified in 1939 with the publication of Elytis first book of poetry entitled "Orientations". Both Elytis and Teriade hailed from Lesbos and had a mutual love of the Greek painter Theophilos. Starting from Paris he travelled and subsequently visited Switzerland, England, Italy and Spain. In 1948 he was the representative of Greece at the International Meetings of Geneva, in 1949 at the Founding Congress of the International Art Critics Union in Paris and in 1962 at the Incontro Romano della Cultura in Rome.

In 1961, upon an invitation of the State Department, he traveled through the U.S.A.; and —upon similar invitations— through the Soviet Union in 1963 and Bulgaria in 1965.

Death[link]

Odysseas Elytis had been completing plans to travel overseas when he died in Athens on 18 March 1996, at the age of 84. He was survived by his niece Myrsene and his older brother Evangelos, who received a writ of condolence from the mayor of Athens on behalf of the nation at the funeral at the First National

The Poetry of Elytis[link]

Relief depicting Odysseas Elytis in the Venetian loggia of Heraklion, Crete.

Elytis' poetry has marked, through an active presence of over forty years, a broad spectrum of subject matter and stylistic touch with an emphasis on the expression of that which is rarefied and passionate. He borrowed certain elements from Ancient Greece and Byzantium but devoted himself exclusively to today's Hellenism, of which he attempted—in a certain way based on psychical and sentimental aspects—to reconstruct a modernist mythology for the institutions. His main endeavour was to rid people's conscience from unjustifiable remorses and to complement natural elements through ethical powers, to achieve the highest possible transparency in expression and finally, to succeed in approaching the mystery of light, the metaphysics of the sun of which he was a "worshiper" -idolater by his own definition. A parallel manner concerning technique resulted in introducing the inner architecture, which is evident in a great many poems of his; mainly in the phenomenal landmark work Worthy It Is (Το Άξιον Εστί). This work due to its setting to music by Mikis Theodorakis as an oratorio, is a revered anthem whose verse is sung by all Greeks for all injustice, resistance and for its sheer beauty and musicality of form. Elytis' theoretical and philosophical ideas have been expressed in a series of essays under the title The Open Papers (Ανοιχτά Χαρτιά). Besides creating poetry he applied himself to translating poetry and theatre as well as a series of collage pictures. Translations of his poetry have been published as autonomous books, in anthologies or in periodicals in eleven languages.

Works[link]

Poetry[link]

• Orientations (Προσανατολισμοί, 1939)
• Sun The First Together With Variations on A Sunbeam (Ηλιος ο πρώτος, παραλλαγές πάνω σε μιαν αχτίδα, 1943)
• An Heroic And Funeral Chant For The Lieutenant Lost In Albania (Άσμα ηρωικό και πένθιμο για τον χαμένο ανθυπολοχαγό της Αλβανίας, 1946)
• To Axion Esti—It Is Worthy (Το Άξιον Εστί, 1959)
• Six Plus One Remorses For The Sky (Έξη και μια τύψεις για τον ουρανό, 1960)
• The Light Tree And The Fourteenth Beauty (Το φωτόδεντρο και η δέκατη τέταρτη ομορφιά, 1972)
• The Sovereign Sun (Ο ήλιος ο ηλιάτορας, 1971)
• The Trills Of Love (Τα Ρω του Έρωτα, 1973)
• The Monogram (Το Μονόγραμμα, 1972)
• Step-Poems (Τα Ετεροθαλή, 1974)
• Signalbook (Σηματολόγιον, 1977)
• Maria Nefeli (Μαρία Νεφέλη, 1978)
• Three Poems under a Flag of Convenience (Τρία ποιήματα με σημαία ευκαιρίας 1982)
• Diary of an Invisible April (Ημερολόγιο ενός αθέατου Απριλίου, 1984)* Krinagoras (Κριναγόρας, 1987)
• The Little Mariner (Ο Μικρός Ναυτίλος, 1988)
• The Elegies of Oxopetra (Τα Ελεγεία της Οξώπετρας, 1991)
• West of Sadness (Δυτικά της λύπης, 1995)
• Eros, Eros, Eros: Selected and Last Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 1998) (translated by Olga Broumas)

Prose, essays[link]

• The True Face and Lyrical Bravery of Andreas Kalvos (Η Αληθινή φυσιογνωμία και η λυρική τόλμη του Ανδρέα Κάλβου, 1942)
• 2x7 e (collection of small essays) (2χ7 ε (συλλογή μικρών δοκιμίων))
• (Offering) My Cards To Sight (Ανοιχτά χαρτιά (συλλογή κειμένων), 1973)
• The Painter Theophilos (Ο ζωγράφος Θεόφιλος, 1973)
• The Magic Of Papadiamantis (Η μαγεία του Παπαδιαμάντη, 1975)
• Report to Andreas Empeirikos (Αναφορά στον Ανδρέα Εμπειρίκο, 1977)
• Things Public and Private (Τα Δημόσια και τα Ιδιωτικά, 1990)
• Private Way (Ιδιωτική Οδός, 1990)
• Carte Blanche («Εν λευκώ» (συλλογή κειμένων), 1992)
• The Garden with the Illusions (Ο κήπος με τις αυταπάτες, 1995)
• Open Papers: Selected Essays, (Copper Canyon Press, 1995) (translated by Olga Broumas and T. Begley)

Translations[link]

• Second Writing (Δεύτερη γραφή, 1976)
• Sappho (Σαπφώ)
• The Apocalypse (by John) (Η αποκάλυψη, 1985)

Reference works[link]

• Mario Vitti: Odysseus Elytis. Literature 1935-1971 (Icaros 1977)
• Tasos Lignadis: Elytis' Axion Esti (1972)
• Lili Zografos: Elytis - The Sun Drinker (1972); as well as the special issue of the American magazine Books Abroad dedicated to the work of Elytis (Autumn 1975. Norman, Oklahoma, U.S.A.)
• Odysseas Elytis: Analogies of Light. Ed. I. Ivask (1981)
• A. Decavalles: Maria Nefeli and the Changeful Sameness of Elytis' Variations on a theme (1982)
• E. Keeley: Elytis and the Greek Tradition (1983)
• Ph. Sherrard: 'Odysseus Elytis and the Discovery of Greece', in Journal of Modern Greek Studies, 1(2), 1983
• K. Malkoff: 'Eliot and Elytis: Poet of Time, Poet of Space', in Comparative Literature, 36(3), 1984
• A. Decavalles: 'Odysseus Elytis in the 1980s', in World Literature Today, 62(l), 1988

Translations of Elytis' work[link]

• Poesie. Procedute dal Canto eroico e funebre per il sottotenente caduto in Albania. Trad. Mario Vitti (Roma. Il Presente. 1952)
• 21 Poesie. Trad. Vicenzo Rotolo (Palermo. Istituto Siciliano di Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici. 1968)
• Poèmes. Trad. Robert Levesque (1945)
• Six plus un remords pourle ciel. Trad. F. B. Mache (Fata Morgana. Montpellier 1977)
• Korper des Sommers. Übers. Barbara Schlörb (St. Gallen 1960)
• Sieben nächtliche Siebenzeiler. Übers. Günter Dietz (Darmstadt 1966)
• To Axion Esti - Gepriesen sei. Übers. Günter Dietz (Hamburg 1969)
• The Axion Esti. Tr. E. Keeley and G. Savidis (Pittsburgh 1974 - Greek & English)(repr. London: Anvil Press, 1980 - English only)
• The Sovereign Sun: selected poems. Tr. K. Friar (1974; repr. 1990)
• Selected poems. Ed. E. Keeley and Ph. Sherrard (1981; repr. 1982, 1991)
• Maria Nephele, tr. A. Anagnostopoulos (1981)
• What I love: selected poems, tr. O. Broumas (1986) [Greek & English texts]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official site of Nobel Prize
• Biography in the site of Greek National Book Centre
• Recitations of poems by Elytis
• Parts of works of his
• Books in Greek about Elytis

From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1968-1980, Editor-in-Charge Tore Frängsmyr, Editor Sture Allén, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1993