(anc. geogr.), an noble island in the Aegean sea, near Thrace, called also Diplos, from its consisting of two towns. The first inhabitants were the Pelagi, or rather the Thracians, who were murdered by their wives. After them came the children of the Lemnian widows by the Argonauts, whose descendants were at last expelled by the Pelagi, about 1100 years before the Christian era. Lemnos is about 112 miles in circumference according to Pliny; who says, that it is often ten shadowed by mount Athos, though at the distance of 87 miles. It has been called Hiphipyle from queen Hiphipyle. It is famous for a certain kind of earth or chalk called terra Lemnia, or terra figillata from the feel or impression which it can bear, and which is used for consolidating wounds. As the inhabitants were blacksmiths, the poets have taken occasion to fix the forges of Vulcan in that island, and to consecrate the whole country to his divinity. Lemnos is also celebrated for a labyrinth, which, according to some traditions, surpassed those of Crete and Egypt. Some remains of it were still visible in the age of Pliny. The island of Lemnos was reduced under the power of Athens by Miltiades.