The largest of the islands of the Ægean, lying south of the
Troad, great part of which it once controlled, was
particularly distinguished in the early literary history of
ancient Greece, having produced what is called "the Æolian
school" of lyric poetry. Alcæus, Sappho, Terpander and Arion
were poets who sprang from Lesbos. The island was one of the
important colonies of what was known as the Æolic migration,
but became subject to Athens after the Persian War. In the
fourth year of the Peloponnesian War its chief city, Mitylene
(which afterwards gave its name to the entire island), seized
the opportunity to revolt. The siege and reduction of Mytilene
by the Athenians was one of the exciting incidents of that
struggle.
_Thucydides,
History,
book 3._
ALSO IN:
_G. Grote,
History of Greece,
part 2, chapters 14 and 50._
See, also, ASIA MINOR: THE GREEK COLONIES;
and GREECE: B. C. 429-427.
LESBOS: B. C. 412.
Revolt from Athens.
See GREECE: B. C. 413-412.
----------LESBOS: End--------
LESCHE, The.
The clubs of Sparta and Athens formed an important feature of
the life of Greece. In every Grecian community there was a
place of resort called the Lesche. In Sparta it was peculiarly
the resort of old men, who assembled round a blazing fire in
winter, and were listened to with profound respect by their
juniors. These retreats were numerous in Athens.
_C. O. Müller,
History and Antiquities of the Doric race,
volume 2, page 396._
"The proper home of the Spartan art of speech, the original
source of so many Spartan jokes current over all Greece, was
the Lesche, the place of meeting for men at leisure, near the
public drilling-grounds, where they met in small bands, and
exchanged merry talk."
_E. Curtius,
History of Greece,
volume 1, page 220 (American edition)._
LESCO V.,
Duke of Poland, A. D. 1194-1227.
Lesco VI., Duke of Poland, 1279-1289.