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The “Holy Soil”

Ypsipyli touches Lemnian soil to draw strength and heal the wounds of her body and soul.

Between Repanidi, Kotsinas and Varos, the area of the hill called “Despotis” and, in ancient times, “Mosychlos”, was called “Ayohoma” or “Holy Soil”. This is where, until the beginning of the 20th century, Lemnian Earth, a thick, reddish clay, known since ancient times for its multiple therapeutic properties, was mined, and for many centuries it was a standard pharmaceutical product both in Greece and in the rest of Europe. Chemical analyses have shown that it is composed mainly of silicate clay and alumina and iron oxides, which give it its characteristic reddish-brown colour. It has antiseptic, blood-clotting and painkilling properties and anti-inflammatory action. In antiquity, the extraction was done early in the morning of May 6 by a priestess who came from Hephaestia to consecrate the ceremony and the tablets created bore the seal of the goddess Artemis. In Christian times, the extraction ceremony was associated with the feast of the Saviour on 6 August, because there was a chapel dedicated to the Saviour nearby, whose existence is mentioned from 1320. The seal of the tablets bore the image of Christ, which is why it was called “holy soil”. In Ottoman times, the seal depicted the crescent moon. According to mythology, Lemnian Earth healed the wounds of Hephaestus, when an enraged Zeus threw him off Mount Olympus and he landed on Lemnos; but also the infected wound of Philoctetes, whom his companions abandoned on the island and continued their journey to Troy.

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