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"The fortress of Mytilene" (1933) - painting by reknown native "naive" artist Theofilos

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ERESOS

Situated in the far west of the island, Eresos was the birthplace of Theophrastos, one of Aristotle's closest associates and disciples, as well as the most famous native of Lesbos - Plato's "tenth muse", the lyricist Sappho. The city was famed in antiquity for the quality of its wheat, as attested by the words of an ancient chronicler who stated that "if the gods eat bread they send Hermes to buy it at Eresos". Perhaps this explains the appearance of the messenger-god and ear of wheat on the otherwise very scarce numismatic issues of this city.

METHYMNA

The second in importance city on the island, today as in antiquity, Methymna (now usually referred to as Molyvos) is located on the north coast facing Asia Minor and the entrance to the Gulf of Adramytteion. It is the birthplace of the famous singer-poet Arion, who served on the court of the sage-king Periander of Corinth, and whose beautiful voice and lyre are engulfed in mythology. A most charming part of that cycle is the tale of his rescue by the dolphins, after having been tossed overboard by some crooked sailors. Inspired by his music, dolphins came to his rescue and rode him to the safety of land. A scarce silver issue of his home town shows Arion with a lyre riding a dolphin, and the same image served as a mintmark for the cities coinage during later Alexandrian times.

MYTILENE

Located on the southeast side of the island, facing Asia Minor with Pergamon slightly further inland, Mytilene has always been the chief city of the island, reflective of its development and synonymous with its fate. Given that lyrical expression - in its original sense of rhythmic poetry of non-epic themes, rendered to the accompaniment of the lyre - set its standards and bloomed here, it is no wonder that the patron god of such expression, Apollo, had special veneration, readily apparent on coinage. This is particularly true of silver and bronze issues, where he frequently appears along with his most relevant attribute here - the lyre, which also serves as the badge and mintmark of the city. However, Mytilene is also famous for a remarkable and more diverse series of coins - those of electrum, an alloy of gold (about 40%) and silver. Denominated as "hektai" (i.e., sixths of the formal unit, called stater) these beautiful small, thick pieces spanned almost 200 years, starting around 500 BC, and rank as one of the finest Greek series. Struck in high relief and characteristically with no inscriptions, these coins feature a remarkable variety of themes on both sides - numerous gods, mythological creatures, real animals and more. The exact rationale for their inclusion and sequencing remains elusive, but they stand as numismatic testimony to the inspired and free Greek spirit this island has come to symbolize.

PYRRHA

A member of the "pentapolis" - the five cities of ancient Lesbos, Pyrrha is the single one no longer in existence today. Parts of its walls can be seen in the shallow waters of the Bay of Kalloni, and nearby stand remains of a mysterious site mentioned as far back as Homer's Odyssey. Believed to have been a shrine, interestingly enough, honoring a trinity of gods - Zeus, Hera and Dionysos - it's subsequent layers serve as a unique testimony to all the following eras and cultural trends. In addition, Pyrrha is the only city of the five not named after one of the children of Makareus, the son of Helios and legendary first settler of the island. Rather, it seems to honor an earlier ancestor of theirs - Pyrrha, the sole female survivor of the cataclysmic flood (also daughter of Pandora, best known for her box full of nasties). The extremely rare coins of this city showing on one side a female head are usually thought to represent her.