Eresos

Abstract

Best known as the birthplace of Sappho and Theophrastus, Eresos was one of five city‐states on Lesbos in the Classical period. Located in the southwest of the island, its main settlement lay around an acropolis with some sheltered anchorage at the south end of the main coastal plain. Polygonal (“Lesbian”) enclosure walls, probably archaic, and two early Christian basilicas are among the few remains. It produced fine barley meal (Ath. 3.111f–112a), and the best wine of Lesbos (Gal. 14.28k).