Methymna

A titular see in the island of Lesbos. It was once the second city of the island, and enjoyed great prosperity. In the Peloponnesian War it played an important rôle (Thucydides, III, ii, 18; vi, 85; vii, 57; Xenophon, Hellen., I, vi, 14), and in Christian times it similarly distinguished itself in its resistance to the Turks. The ancient poets praise the excellent wine of Methymna (Virgil, Georgics, II, 90; Ovid, Ars Am., I, 57; Horace, Sat., II, 8, 50; Odes, I, 17, 21). Methymna was the birthplace of the poet Arion and probably also of the historian Myrsilus. For a list of the bishops of Methymna see Le Quien, “Oriens Christ.”, I, 961-64. One of them, Gabriel, in the seventeenth century united with Rome (Allatius, “De perpetua consensione”, II, 7). In 640 it is mentioned by the “Ecthesis” of pseudo-Epiphanius as an autocephalous archdiocese, and about 1084 was made a metropolitan see under Alexius I Comnenus. It has retained this rank in the Orthodox Church, though for Catholics it is now a mere titular archdiocese. Today it bears the name of Molivo, and with the places dependent upon it numbers 37,000 inhabitants, of whom 29,000 are Orthodox Greeks, 9000 Mussulmans, and 40 Catholics. The last named are dependent on the Diocese of Smyrna. Molivo is a kaza of the sanjak of Metelin in the vilayet of Rhodes. Situated at the southern extremity of the island of Mitylene, nearly thirty miles from Metelin and five naval miles from the Asiatic continent, Molivo occupies a delightful marine site on the slope of a hill formed of basaltic rocks.