Antissa

Antissa (Άντισσα) was a city of the island Lesbos (Lesvos), near to Cape Sigrium, the western point of Lesbos. [Steph. B. s. v. Antissa, following Strabo, p. 618.] The place had a harbour. The ruins found by Richard Pococke at Calas Limneonas, a little NE. of cape Sigri, may be those of Antissa. This place was the birth-place of Terpander, who is said to be the inventor of the seven-stringed lyre. The Athenian general Iphicrates retired to Antissa, and later to Drys, after his service to his father-in-law Cotys, King of the Thracians.

Myrsilus says that Antissa was once an island, [Quoted by Strabo, p. 60.] and at that time Lesbos was called Issa; so that Antissa was named like many other places (e.g. Antiparos and Antiphellus) with reference to the name of an opposite place. Pliny places Antissa among the lands rescued from the sea, [Pliny ii. 89.] and joined to the mainland; Ovid, speaking of the changes which the earth's surface has undergone, tells the same story. [Ovid, "Met". xv. 287.] In another passage, where he enumerates the ancient names of Lesbos, Pliny mentions Lasia, but not Issa. [Pliny v. 31.] Lasia, however, may be a corrupt word. Stephanus makes Issa a city of Lesbos. It is possible, then, that Antissa, when it was an island, may have had its name from a place on the mainland of Lesbos opposite to it, and called Issa.

Antissa joined the Mytilenaeans in their revolt from Athens in the Peloponnesian war (B.C. 428), and successfully defended itself against the Methymnaeans who attacked it. But after Mytilene had been compelled to surrender to the Athenians, Antissa was recovered by them also. [Thuc. iii. 18, 28.] Antissa was destroyed by the Romans after the conquest of Perseus, king of Macedonia (B.C. 168), because the Antissaeans had received in their port and given supplies to Antenor, the admiral of Perseus. The people were removed to Methymna. [Liv. xlv. 31; Pliny v. 31.]

Archaeological excavations carried out by Winnifred Lamb for the British School of Archaeology at Athens revealed parts of the city wall and Iron Age buildings including an apsidal structure. The original island site is now joined to the mainland by a sandy isthmus; its most conspicuous remains are those of a medieval castle. Traces of the harbour mole may also be seen on the eastern side of the city.

This article is based on "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography" (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD)

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