Lion’s Head From Lesbos Coin Ring

Description

One of the great cultural centers of the ancient Greek world was the Island of Lesbos. A favorite place of poets and philosophers, the cities of Lesbos were quite prosperous. Its most famous resident was the poet sappho who composed nine books of erotic poetry, of which only one poem – An Ode to Aphrodite – survives complete.

Lesbos was the largest island situated off the coast of Western Asia Minor, and ite reaped the benefits of its ideal location, which was easily accessbile from mainland Asia, the entrance to the Black Sea and from Greece itself. Its fertile soil and a mild climate made the isalnd ideal for agriculture and animal husbandry. The principal city on Lesbos, named Mytilene, was a prolific issue of coins in the 5th and 4th Centuries BC.