Eresos (; ; ) and its twin beach village Skala Eresou are located in the southwest part of the Greek island of Lesbos. They are villages visited by considerable numbers of tourists. Its history begins in the early Greek Archaic period and famous Greeks of antiquity that were Eressians include Sappho, Theophrastos and Phaenias of Eresus.
Geography
From 1999 until 2010, Eresos and the village of Antissa constituted the municipality of Eresos-Antissa which contained five other villages: Messotopos, Vatoussa, Chidira, Sigri and Pterounda located in the west and most barren part of the island. From 2010 until 2019, Eresos was part of the municipality of Lesvos and from 2019 it is part of the municipality of West Lesvos. Bare rocky hills, derived from ancient volcanic activity, dominate the area. Skala Eresou is a centre for international tourism and is a favorite spot of Greek families, young people as well as gay women. With its long beautiful beach with dark volcanic sand and its crystal-clear unpolluted water, Skala Eressou was awarded Blue Flag status by the Foundation for Environmental Education.
History
Archaic period Stephanus of Byzantium, a lexicographer of the 6th century AD, claimed that the city was named after Eresos, a son of the mythical king of Lesbos, Macar.Stephanus of Byzantium s.v. Ἔρεσος. Archaeology suggests that the city of Eresos was founded in the 8th or 7th century BC.N. Spencer, A Gazetteer of Archaeological Sites on Lesbos (1995). Information about Eresos before the Classical period is extremely scant. The lyric poet Sappho may have been born at Eresos c. 620 BCE and belonged to an important family who were socially prominent at Mytilene, the island's most important city.D. A. Campbell, Greek Lyric I. Sappho and Alcaeus (1990) x-xiii. In addition, the oldest Greek inscription on the island, which dates to the 6th century BCE, has been found in the hills above Eresos, and is thought to have belonged to a temple.Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 48.1053. The remains of defensive towers and large enclosures thought to have had a religious purpose built in the decorative Lesbian polygonal style and located at the edges of Eresian territory suggests a certain degree of wealth and prosperity in the Archaic period.G. P. Schaus and N. Spencer, 'Notes on the topography of Eresos' American Journal of Archaeology 98 (1994) 411-430.
Classical period Eresos, along with Antissa and Pyrrha, was one of the minor cities on Lesbos in the 5th century BCE. When Mytilene revolted from the Delian League in summer 428, Eresos supported Mytilene.Thucydides 3.18.1. The following year, it fell to the Athenian general Paches and, along with the other cities of the island except for Methymna, had an Athenian cleruchy imposed on it.Thucydides 3.35.1. In the latter part of the Peloponnesian War, Eresos went back and forth between Athenian and Spartan control on a number of occasions. In summer 412, Eresos revolted from Athens and joined the Spartan admiral Astyochus in making an unsuccessful attempt to seize Methymna. When Astyochus' attempt to take Lesbos failed, Eresos returned to Athenian control.Thucydides 8.23.2-4. The following year, exiles from Methymna again raised Eresos in revolt. The Athenian commanders, Thrasyllus at Methymna and Thrasybulus on Samos, both despatched forces to retake Eresos.Thucydides 8.100.3-5. This siege was called off when the Athenians realised they had been out-flanked by the Spartan admiral Mindarus.Thucydides 8.103.2. Following the Athenian victory at the Battle of Arginusae in 406, Eresos may have fallen under Athenian control as the rest of the island did.Xenophon, Hellenica 1.6.23-38. Whatever the case, in 405 the Spartan commander Lysander imposed garrisons and Spartan governors on the cities of Lesbos, which remained in place for the next two decades.Xenophon, Hellenica 2.2.5, 4.8.29, Diodorus Siculus 14.74.3.
Spartan control of Eresos ended in 389 when the Athenian commander Thrasybulus retook the city.Diodorus Siculus 14.94.3-4. In 377 Eresos is recorded as a member of the Second Athenian League.Inscriptiones Graecae II2 43 B.21. About 371, Theophrastus, remembered as the "father of botany", was born at Eresos; after working with Aristotle on Lesbos and in Macedonia, he eventually followed him to Athens where he succeeded him as head of the Peripatetic school. Phaenias of Eresus was also a native of the town. From 377 down to 332, the chronology of Eresian politics is difficult to establish with any certainty.P. J. Rhodes and R. Osborne, Greek Historical Inscriptions 404-323 BC (2003) 414-17. Athens is thought to have lost control of Eresos following the Social War (357–355 BC), after which its power in the Aegean waned.P. J. Rhodes and R. Osborne, Greek Historical Inscriptions 404-323 BC (2003) 238-43. It was perhaps at this point that the tyranny of Apollodorus and his brothers took power. This family and their descendants remained in power until 336, when Attalus and Parmenion campaigned in the region against the Persians at the behest of Philip II of Macedon.Diodorus Siculus 16.91.2. It is assumed that a democracy was set up at Eresos and the city enrolled in the League of Corinth.P. J. Rhodes and R. Osborne, Greek Historical Inscriptions 404-323 BC (2003) 372-9. In 335, Memnon of Rhodes retook this region for the Persian Empire and re-installed the tyranny of Apollodorus and his brothers.Diodorus Siculus 17.7. In spring 334, Alexander the Great invaded Asia Minor, and it is assumed that the cities of Lesbos (including Eresos) went over to the Macedonian forces soon after his victory at the Battle of the Granicus in May 334; again, the tyrants will have been expelled and the Eresian democrats re-installed.Arrian, Anabasis 1.17-23, Diodorus Siculus 17.22-7. In 333, the admiral Memnon of Rhodes again attacked the island of Lesbos: he seized all the cities except for Mytilene and installed a new pair of tyrants at Eresos, Eurysilaus and Agonippus.Arrian, Anabasis 2.1-2, Diodorus Siculus 17.29.2. A long inscription later set up at Eresos c. 306–301 by the Eresian democrats claims (not without partisan intent) that the tyrants committed many crimes, including expelling the men from the city, holding their women hostage on the acropolis, and exacting large sums of money from the populace, as well as helping the Persians commit piracy against Greek shipping.Inscriptiones Graecae XII (2) 526 ( OGIS 8 ).
In 332, Alexander's admiral Hegelochus of Macedon retook Lesbos from the Persians once and for all and brought Eurysilaus and Agonippus to be tried before Alexander in Egypt, where he left their fate in the hands of the newly restored Eresian democracy.Arrian, Anabasis 3.2.6-7, Curtius 4.8.11. The same long inscription which records the alleged crimes of the tyrants also details their trial which ended in their execution. Biographical traditions of the philosophers Theophrastus and Phaenias of Eresos claims that they were involved in the overthrow of tyranny at Eresos.Theophrastus, testimonium 33A-B in W. W. Fortenbaugh et al. (eds.), Theophrastus of Eresos: Sources for his Life, Writings, Thought, and Influence, vol. 1 (1992). Efforts were made by the exiled relatives of Apollodorus and his brothers to return to Eresos in 324 and 319 and by the exiled relatives of Agonippus and Eurysilaus to return c. 306–301, but on all three occasions the Eresian democracy was successfully able to argue that they should not be obliged to take back their exiles.
Hellenistic period The history of Eresos after the Classical period is only known from its inscriptions, as almost no mention is made of it in the literary sources which survive. In the last two decades of the 4th century BCE Eresos had been subject to Antigonus I Monophthalmus.Antigonus is the authority to whom they appeal in c. 306-301 regarding their exiles: Inscriptiones Graecae XII (2) 526 ( OGIS 8.C ). After Antigonus' defeat at the Battle of Ipsus in 301, the region of north west Asia Minor and the adjacent islands went over to King Lysimachus until his death at the Battle of Corupedium in 281. In the following decades, the cities of Lesbos with the exception of Mytilene drifted into the Ptolemaic sphere of influence.The exact chronology is disputed by scholars: see R. Bagnall, The Administration of the Ptolemaic Possessions Outside Egypt (1976), P. Brun, 'Les Lagides à Lesbos: essai de chronologie' Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 85 (1991) 99-113, Ph. Gauthier, Bulletin épigraphique (1992) no. 343. Ptolemaic influence at Eresos in the second half of the 3rd century BCE is indicated by the creation of a religious festival in honour of the Ptolemaic royal family called the Ptolemaia at which gymnastic competitions were held.Inscriptiones Graecae XII (2) 527 (c. 221-205 BCE), 528 (c. 175-150 BCE), Supplementum 122 (c. 209-205 BCE), 125 (late 3rd century BCE).
Political infighting at the Ptolemaic court following the accession of Ptolemy V Epiphanes in 205 and the campaigns of Antiochus III in the years following led to the disintegration of Ptolemaic influence in the north Aegean. The power vacuum was filled by Rhodes, which soon after agreed a treaty of alliance with Eresos and the other cities of Lesbos.Inscriptiones Graecae XII Supplementum 120 (190s BCE). In the first half of the 2nd century BCE, Eresos also drew closer to the other cities of Lesbos under the aegis of the Lesbian koinon, a quasi-federal organisation which had existed on the island in various forms since the early 6th century BCE, but became more active in times when a common danger was perceived.L. Robert, 'Inscriptions de Lesbos' Opera Minora Selecta 2.801-31, G. Labarre, 'Κοινὸν Λεσβίων' Revue des études anciennes 96.3-4 (1994) 415–46, G. Labarre, Les cités de Lesbos aux époques hellénistique et impériale (1996) 70-4, 137-45 H. J. Mason, Phoenix 52 (1998) 175. This period of Eresian history also saw closer ties with Rome, at this time an emerging power in the Eastern Mediterranean. Two Romans are honoured in a list of proxenoi from Eresos dating to the last third of the 3rd century BCE, one of the earliest appearances of negotiatores in the Greek East.Inscriptiones Graecae XII Supplementum 127. W. Mack, 'The Eresian catalogue of proxenoi (IG XII Suppl. 127)' Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 180 (2012) 219, 223. An inscription recording a letter sent to Eresos by a Roman magistrate and another document honouring the Romans as benefactors of the Greeks, both of which date to the 2nd century BCE, indicate that Eresos, much like the other cities on Lesbos, sought to forge closer ties with Rome.Inscriptiones Graecae XII Supplementum 123, 692. The complete destruction of neighbouring Antissa in 167 will have been a further encouragement to do so.
Imperial period