Lesvos or Lesbos, also called Mytilene by the Greeks (after the island's capital), is the third largest of all Greek Islands. Its location in the North Aegean Sea and near the Turkish coast makes the island very distant from other more "fashionable" Greek islands, attracting the mainstream of tourists for a number of years.

On hindsight this has helped the island to keep its traditional industries and lifestyle and therefore not rely on tourism for its main income, as other Greek islands have done. It's an island rich in history and culture and the birthplace of many great poets, musicians and generally arts personalities. Poets have described it, as a golden green plane leaf, floating in the shimmering sea. In resent years it has also become known for it "green credentials". It is virtually, unaffected by the mass tourism which inevitably has turned other islands and resorts into westernised amusement parks.

Lesvos is an island rich in traditional charm, history and culture, with many small and still undiscovered villages, secluded bays, welcoming beaches, country walks, birds, wild orchids, handicrafts, and folklore festivals little changed over the years.

Visiting the island does not demand a bottomless pocket! You can have a great time and still not spend a fortune. Some locations, like Vatera are more inexpensive that others. You can save money by going there and have just as much fun or more than you will do, if you go anywhere else.

If you love the Greek islands for their "Greek ness", the diversity and variety they can offer, LESVOS can do that much better, at a much bigger scale from that of most other islands you have visited.

Myth of Sapho

Sappho (circa 630 B.C.)

She was one of the great Greek lyrists and few known female poets of the ancient world. She was an aristocrat who married a prosperous merchant and had a daughter named Cleis. She was wealthy enough to live the life she chose and study the arts at the island of Lesvos.

In the 7^th Century B.C. Lesvos was a cultural centre. Although Sappho spend most of her time on the island, she also travelled widely throughout Greece. Because of political activities she was once exiled in Sicily. The residents of Syracuse were so honoured by her visit; they erected a statute to her.

Sappho was called a lyrist because she wrote her poems to be performed with the accompaniment of a lyre. She composed her own music and refined the prevailing lyric meter to a point that it is now called the Sapphic meter. Her style was sensual and melodic; mostly songs of love, yearning and reflection

Sappho was very much honoured in ancient times. While she still lived coins of Lesvos were minted with her image. Plato elevated her from the status of great lyric poet to the status of the tenth muse. Upon hearing one of her songs, Solon, an Athenian ruler, lawyer and a poet, asked that he be taught the song “Because I want to learn it and die”. Unfortunately only one of Sappho’s poems is available in its entirety – all of the rest exist as fragments of her original work.

From ancient times to today, Sappho has remained an important literary and cultural figure. Her works continued to be studied and translated. She inspires new poets constantly and speculation on her life remains popular in the form of fictionalised tales and ardent research. For a woman who has been dead for over two thousand years, this is quite an achievement.