Lemnos trivia: 69 uknown facts about this Greek island!

Lemnos is one of the Greek islands you should visit at least once in your life. So you need to find out everything there is to know about it!

So let’s dive right into the unknown things about this island!

1. Lemnos is a Greek island in the northern part of the Aegean Sea
2. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within the Lemnos regional unit
3. Which is part of the North Aegean region
4. The principal town of the island and seat of the municipality is Myrina
5. At 477.583 square kilometres (184.396 sq mi), it is the 8th-largest island of Greece
6. Lemnos is mostly flat
7. But the west, and especially the northwest part, is rough and mountainous
8. The highest point is Mount Skopia at the altitude of 430 m
9. The chief towns are Myrina, on the western coast
10. And Moudros on the eastern shore of a large bay in the middle of the island
11. Myrina (also called Kastro, meaning “castle”) possesses a good harbour
12. Which is in the process of being upgraded through construction of a west-facing sea wall
13. It is the seat of all trade carried on with the mainland
14. The hillsides afford pasture for sheep, and Lemnos has a strong husbandry tradition
15. Being famous for its Kalathaki Limnou
16. A cheese made from sheep and goat milk and melipasto cheese
17. And for its yogurt
18. Fruit and vegetables that grow on the island include almonds, figs, melons, watermelons, tomatoes, pumpkins and olives
19. The main crops are wheat, barley, sesame
20. In fact Lemnos was Constantinople’s granary after the Byzantine Empire lost its Anatolian possessions in the 1320s
21. Lemnos also produces honey
22. But, as is the case with most products of a local nature in Greece, the produced quantities are little more than simply sufficient for the local market
23. Muscat grapes are grown widely
24. And are used to produce an unusual table wine that is dry yet has a strong Muscat flavor
25. Since 1985 the variety and quality of Lemnos wines have increased greatly
26. It has more than 30 sand beaches
27. For ancient Greeks, the island was sacred to Hephaestus, god of metallurgy
28. Hephaestus fell on Lemnos when Zeus hurled him headlong out of Olympus
29. There, he was cared for by the Sinties, according to Iliad, or by Thetis
30. There with a Thracian nymph Cabiro (a daughter of Proteus) he fathered a tribe called the Kaberoi
31. Sacred initiatory rites dedicated to them were performed in the island
32. Its ancient capital was named Hephaistia in the god’s honor
33. Hephaestus’ forge, which was located on Lemnos, as well as the name Aethaleia, sometimes applied to it, points to its volcanic character
34. It is said that fire occasionally blazed forth from Mosychlos, one of its mountains
35. The ancient geographer Pausanias relates that a small island called Chryse, off the Lemnian coast, was swallowed up by the sea
36. All volcanic action is now extinct
37. The earliest inhabitants are said to have been a Thracian tribe, whom the Greeks called Sintians, “robbers”
38. The name Lemnos is said by Hecataeus to have been applied in the form of a title to Cybele among the Thracians
39. The worship of Cybele was characteristic of Thrace
40. Τhere it had spread from Asia Minor at a very early period
41. Hypsipyle and Myrina (the name of one of the chief towns) are Amazon names
42. Which are always connected with Asiatic Cybele-worship
43. According to the epitome of the Bibliotheke traditionally attributed to Apollodorus, when Dionysus found Ariadne abandoned on Naxos, he brought her to Lemnos
44. There fathered Thoas, Staphylus, Oenopion, and Peparethus
45. Pliny the Elder in his Natural History (xxxvi. 13) speaks of a remarkable labyrinth in Lemnos
46. Which has not been identified in modern times
47. According to a Hellenic legend, the women were all deserted by their husbands for Thracian women
48. And in revenge they murdered every man on the island
49. From this barbarous act, the expression Lemnian deeds became proverbial among the Hellenes
50. According to Apollonius of Rhodes’ Argonautica the Argonauts landing soon after found only women in the island
51. Ruled by Hypsipyle, daughter of the old king Thoas
52. From the Argonauts and the Lemnian women were descended the race called Minyans
53. Whose king Euneus, son of Jason and Hypsipyle, sent wine and provisions to the Achaeans at Troy
54. According to later Greek historians, the Minyans were expelled by a Pelasgian tribe who came from Attica
55. The historical element underlying these traditions is probably that the original Thracian people were gradually brought into communication with the Greeks
56. As navigation began to unite the scattered islands of the Aegean
57. The Thracian inhabitants were technologically primitive in comparison with the Greek mariners
58. In another legend, Philoctetes was left on Lemnos by the Greeks on their way to Troy
59. And there he suffered ten years’ agony from his wounded foot, until Odysseus and Neoptolemus induced him to accompany them to Troy
60. According to Sophocles, he lived beside Mount Hermaeus
61. Which Aeschylus makes one of the beacon points to flash the news of Troy’s downfall home to Argos
62. In 2001 the island had 12,116 regular dwellings, of which 65% were stone-built
63. And 90.2% had pitched roofs made of red tiles
64. The island’s economically active population in 2001 was 6,602
65. Of them, 12% were employers, 20.5% self-employed, 55.3% wage-earners, 7.1% unpaid, auxiliary family members
66. And 5.1% did not declare line of occupation
67. Of the economically active population, 17.9% worked in agriculture, 5.3% in light manufacturing, 11% in construction, 6.7% in hotels & restaurants, and the rest in other lines of business
68. The only airport is Lemnos International Airport, 18 kilometres (11 mi) east of Myrina
69. The island is well served by ferries from Piraeus (Athens), Laurium, Thessaloniki and Kavala