Classical Period
The settlement of Athenians on the island
In the year 511 BC, as we learn also from the ancient historian Herodotus (5, 26.1, 5, 27.1), the army of the Persian king Darius, under general Otanes, captured Lemnos, which was still inhabited by the Pelasgians, in order to use it as a nodal point for the Persians campaigns in the West. From Herodotus’ report that the Lemnians fell into enemy hands, even though they struggled valiantly and put up resistance for a long time, it is concluded that the island’s two cities, Hephaistia and Myrina, were tightly besieged before they were taken. A little later, in 499 BC, the Athenians succeeded, after several attempts, in capturing the island, but after a brief interval it returned to the Persians, who won it back in 494 BC. Finally, in 479 BC, the Athenian Miltiades, as Herodotus recounts (6, 140.1), sallied forth from the Hellespont and captured Lemnos. He took Hephaistia without resistance, whereas Myrina, which did not want to side with the Athenians, was besieged until it capitulated. The Persian garrison was driven out of the island and Athenian cleruchs (lot-holders) were installed, while the Pelasgian inhabitants were forced to migrate. Although archaeological finds in Myrina attest the presence of Athenians from the end of the Archaic period, the final installation of Athenians in the city and on the island generally took place after 439 BC and Lemnos became part of the Athenian Democracy.
In the Classical period, Myrina and Hephaistia were the principal cities of the island. As many pottery sherds reveal, Classical Myrina was concentrated to the north of the harbour, on the south and east slopes, and at the foot of the rocky complex of the peninsula with the kastro. According to the German archaeologist Carl Fredrich, who visited the site in 1904, this was a densely-built city with the acropolis dominating the highest point of the headland. On the basis of ancient inscriptions, Fredrich argues that the city had a theatre, although its location is not yet known.
However, there are indications that on the terrace of the acropolis there was a sanctuary. This area, created by cutting and then smoothing the bedrock on the east-west axis, seems to have been arranged for this purpose. It is known that in the space around the acropolis there were abundant marble fragments, several of which have been characterized as architectural members, thus referring to the existence of a marble temple.
Other clues to the existence of a sanctuary, and indeed of a female deity, are the terracotta votive figurines retrieved from the castle hill, which are dated from Archaic into Hellenistic times and in the majority represent female deities.
In Fredrich’s view, the sanctuary was dedicated by the Athenian cleruchs to Athena Lemnian, to whom they expressed their gratitude with various votive offerings. Other researchers, judging by the dedications, tend to support the existence of a cult of Demeter and Persephone. This second hypothesis is further advocated by a small marble plaque that was at one time incorporated as repair material in the fortification wall of the castle entrance (it was lost in the early 20th century). On the plaque was a relief representation of two figures, one seated and one standing, which are identified as Hades and Kore, respectively.
The Athenians made additions and repairs to the pre-existing Pelasgian polygonal fortification walls, applying the isodomic system of masonry. They extended the walls to the east, with the circumvallation embracing from north to south the whole neck of the peninsula, together with the rocky outcrop but excluding the shore. Several sections of this mighty fortification wall still stand to a height of 3-4 m, in the basements and lowest parts of the masonry of the modern houses on the east slopes of the kastro. They are built with blocks up to 0.50 m high, alternating with courses about 0.30 m high. A part of the fortification, 2.90 m high, is visible in a narrow courtyard and part of it continues, quite deep in the ground, with several boulders exceeding 1 m. Other remains of the fortification wall are incorporated in the construction in the basements of modern houses. The importance of the fortifications at this period is attested also by an Athenian inscription (dated between the Classical and the Hellenistic period) which speaks of an embassy sent to the city in order to build the fortification walls.
Other remnants of the Classical fortification wall are visible:
1. on the east side of the slopes of the acropolis in the lowest part of the later surviving fortification wall,
2. on the west side of the south fortification wall of the acropolis –today totally destroyed– there seem to be some blocks from the lowest part of the fortification wall.
The German archaeologist Carl Fredrich, in the account of his itineraries, notes that the lower fortification wall, the south one above the harbour, had already collapsed in the mid-fifth century BC.
