Perth Amboy evening news., 1917-01-17
ISLAND OF LESBOS ALSO
I'm REVDA I'D lnAApY NAYIHllpSI

/
washington. -. c., Jan. 1.-THE
island of Lesbos, whose inhabitants
were not far behind the Cretans in
| expressing in revolutionary outburst
their dissatisfaction with the failure
to throw the weight of Greek arms in
to the scales of war on the side of the
Entente Allies, is the subject of a
timely war geography bulletin issued
| by the National Geographic Society,
| from its headquarters in Washington
which says:
Lesbos, often called Mytiene after
! the islands famous capital and chief
| city, lies on the eastern edge of the
! Aegean Sea, separated from the east
ern shores of Asia Minor by q channel
which at its narrowest point is not
more than seven miles across. That
part of the mainland opposite the
| island was known in ancient times as
Troad (the land of Troy) and in
Homeric legend Lesbos was given as
one Of the bounds of the region ruled
by King Priam. 1t lies almost mid
way between Smyrna and the Darda-
nelles.
THE area of Lesbos Is about 675
square miles, GO square miles larger
than the Isle of Pines, off the coast
of Cuba,) and its surface is q success
sion of Well-wooded mountains and
fertile valleys. The shallow Gulf of
Kalloni, entering from the southwest,
almost cuts the island in two. Mt.
olympus on the southern promon-
tory reaches an elevation of more
than 5000 feet.
I'm ancient days Lesbos was fam
Gus for its wines, it's oil and it's grain,
but the vineyards are no longer
especially productive. The olive is
now the chief product of the island,
and much Of the oil of this fruit is
converted into soap and exported.
Figs, almonds, cattle, and hides are
other articles of commerce, also the
acorns of the valonia oak, extensively
used in tanning and in the prepara-
ton of vegetable dyestuffs.
although 80 per cent. of the Is
lands population of 10000 is Greek
the territory was under Turkish rule
until three years ago when Greece
assumed control, following the sec
ond Balkan war. The Turks came
into possession Of the island in the
middle of the fifteenth century when
MOhammed II. wrested 1T from the
descendants of the Genoese noble,
Francesca Gattilusis who has re-
ceived 1t from the Byzantine emper-
ors in 1854.
Besides the famous struggles
over the city Of Mytilene, recited in
a previous bulletin of the National
Geographic Society, several impor-
tant marine engagements have been
fought in the waters adjacent to Les
bos, notably those in which the Ven
etians defeated the Turks in 1690-9S,
and the Greeks bested the same pow
er in 1921.
I'm addition to Pittacus. ono of
the Seven Sages of Greece, and Sap
pho, the greatest woman poet of the
ancients, Lesbos hall of fame boasts
of Terpander, the founder of Greek
classical music and of lyric poetry
and a famous composer of drinking
songs; Alcaeus, poet and inventor of
the Alcaic stanZa, much used by Hor-
ace and Theophrastus, the famous
and pupil of Aristotle
whom the latter named as guardian
Of his children and to whom he be-
queathed the Aristotelean library and
works. After Aristotle's death
presided over the Peri
patetic school for thirtv-five years,
mp to the time of his death in 287 p.
G., when he was given public
in Athens and mourned by
the entire populace. Lesches, author
of The Little Had continuance of
the Homeric epic from the death of
Hector through the Incidents relating
to the contest of Ulysses and Ajax
over the arnor of Achilles, was also
a native of Lesbos, having been born
at Pyrrha, one of the FIVE towns
which gave the island the name of
PentaDolis In the early davs of it's
colonization by the Aeolians from
Boeotias