Mithymna

Methymna is also an archaeological site in the prefecture of Chania. See Methymna, Crete

Mithymna Μήθυμνα
Settlement
Country	Greece
Administrative region	North Aegean
Government
• Mayor	Stélios Karantónis
Area
• Total	50.166 km2 (19.369 sq mi)
Elevation	51 m (167 ft)
Population  (2001)
• Total	2,433
• Density	48/km2 (130/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)
Postal code	811 08
Area code(s)	22530
Vehicle registration	MY
Website	mithymna.gr

View from the hill in the middle of the city (2006)

Mithymna (Greek:Μήθυμνα), ancient form Methymna, is the second most important town on Lesbos. Mithymna is also the seat of the municipality as well as the province. It is also known by the name Molyvos or Molivos used under the Ottoman Empire (CE). Mithymna is located NE of Eressos, N of Plomari and NW of Mytilene.

The town (pop. 1,497 at 2001 census) is on the northern part of the island, just some 6 km north of the popular beach town of Petra. One of the most noticeable features of the town is the old Genoese fortress on the hill in the middle of the town.

The Municipality of Míthymna stretches eastward from the town along the northern part of the island; it is the island's smallest municipality in land area at 50.166 km², and the second-smallest in the prefecture (after Ágios Efstrátios). Its population was 2,433 at the 2001 census. The next largest towns in the municipality are Árgennos (pop. 240) and Sykaminéa (207).

History

As Methymna, the city was once the prosperous second city of Lesbos, with a founding myth that identified an eponymous Methymna (Greek: Μήθυμνα), the daughter of Macar and married to the personification of Lesbos; this mythologized social geography appears on the city's coinage [1].) In the Peloponnesian War, Methymna played an important role (Thucydides, III, ii, 18; vi, 85; vii, 57; Xenophon, Hellen., I, vi, 14). The poets praised the excellent wine of Methymna (Virgil, Georgics, II, 90; Ovid, Ars Amatoria, I, 57; Horace, Satire II, 8, 50; Odes, I, 17, 21). Methymna was the birthplace of the legendary poet Arion and probably also of the historian Myrsilus. Here was the shrine of the hero Palamedes, mentioned in the early third-century AD Life of Apollonius of Tyana (book v.13).

As a Christian city, Methymna was the seat of a bishop. In 640, Methymna was mentioned in the Ecthesis, pseudographically attributed to Epiphanius of Salamis, as an autocephalous archdiocese, and around 1084, it was made a metropolitan see under Alexius I Comnenus. The Fourth Crusade brought Latin control, on the strength of which the Roman Catholic Church maintains a purely titular see of Methymna; there were 40 Roman Catholics in 1908. (CE)

The fortress was probably constructed after the mid-13th century, as a defense against Franks and Turks alike.

The Ottomans took the city in 1462. As Molivo under the Ottoman Empire, the city was a kaza of the sanjak of Metelin in the vilayet of Rhodes. After the defeat of the Ottomans in the First Balkan War (1913), Greece annexed Lesbos in 1914.

Historical Population

Year	Population	Change	Municipal population	Change
1981	1,427	-	-	-
1991	1,333	-	-94/6.59%	2,359

External links

• Official website Template:De icon Template:El icon
• http://lesvos.com/molyvos.html
• Methymna Fortress
• Ancient coinage of Methymna - Wildwinds | Asia Minor Coins
• Catholic Encyclopedia: Methymna (cited as CE)

• Mapquest - Mithymna, street map not yet available
• Coordinates: 39°10′25″N 26°22′0″E

See also

• Communities of the Lesbos prefecture