🔼The name Mitylene: Summary
- Meaning
- Hornless
- Etymology
- From the adjective μιτυλος (mitulos), mutilated, hornless.
🔼The name Mitylene in the Bible
The name Mitylene occurs once in the Bible. It's the name of the capital port city of the island Lesbos, just off the west coast of Anatolia (modern Turkey), where Paul's ship briefly docked on its way from Assos to Miletus (Acts 20:14).
Paul had spent three months in Macedonia and a week in Troas (where Eutychus famously fell out the window), but aimed to travel back to Jerusalem. The author and at least one companion (he speaks of "we") boarded a ship for Assos without Paul, because for undisclosed reasons, Paul had arranged to get to Assos by land (Acts 20:13).
🔼Etymology of the name Mitylene
The name Mitylene comes from the adjective μιτυλος (mitulos), which in turn is related to the familiar Latin word mutilus, from which comes our English verb "to mutilate". How and from what the Greek language derived our word μιτυλος (mitulos) isn't clear but from its sparse usages it appears that it was solely used in the meaning of hornless.
🔼Mitylene meaning
The name Mitylene means Hornless.