Major mints: Myrina, Methymna

Lesbos, an island off the coast of Aeolis, was named for the legendary grandson of Aeolus, the wind-god. The island, settled in the Bronze Age, was the first settlement in Aeolis by the Boeotians and Thessalians. The main city was Mytilene, one of the last cities to issue electrum coinage, producing electrum sixth-staters in alliance with Phokaea as late as 350 BC. The cities together issued series of base and crude staters and fractions in billon (base silver) around 500 BC.

Mytilene never managed to control the entire island. Its chief rival was Methymna, which issued coinage with Arion playing the lyre or riding a dolphin. Arion was a famous poet and musician from this city, who leaped into the sea to escape from sailors trying to rob him; when dolphins had been attracted by his lyre-playing, he rode one of them to shore.