Iasos
To a traveller sailing over the Aegean from the West, and threading his course between the Sporades towards the Carian coast, two headlands would stand out as prominent landmarks, Mount Poseidion to the north and the city of Myndos to the south. Between these two points lies the middlemost of the three large bays into which the coastline of Caria is irregularly broken. And nearly in the innermost recess of this central bay —for the bay itself is subdivided into a number of lesser inlets—a little rocky island, of only a mile and a quarter in circumference, lies close to the Carian mainland, to which indeed in later days it has become united by a narrow isthmus. Upon this rocky islet, lurking as it were behind the shelter of inclosing shores, a Greek colony—from Argos, it was said—had early established itself. But in their struggle with the Carian natives, who resented their intrusion, the settlers experienced such reverses, that they were glad to invite the son of Neleus, the founder of Miletus, to come to their relief. This he did, and with important results; for this influx of Ionian settlers from Miletus, while it repaired the fortunes of the little colony, transformed lasos from a Dorian into an Ionian city.