Acraephia or Akraiphia ( grc, Ἀκραιφία), Acraephiae or Akraiphiai (Ἀκραιφίαι), Acraephium or Akraiphion (Ἀκραίφιον), Acraephnium or Akraiphnion (Ἀκραίφνιον), was a town of

ancient Boeotia Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia ( el, Βοιωτία; modern: ; ancient: ), formerly known as Cadmeis, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, and its ...

on the slope of Mount Ptoum (Πτῶον) and on the eastern bank of the

Lake Copais Lake Copais, also spelled Kopais or Kopaida ( grc, Κωπαΐς; ell, Κωπαΐδα), was a lake in the centre of Boeotia, Greece, west of Thebes. It was drained in the late 19th century. It is now flat dry land and is still known as Kopaida. ...

, which was here called Ἀκραιφὶς λίμνη from the town. Acraephia is said to have been founded by

Athamas In Greek mythology, Athamas (; grc, Ἀθάμας, Athámas) was a Boeotian king.Apollodorus1.9.1/ref> Family Athamas was formerly a Thessalian prince and the son of King Aeolus of Aeolia and Enarete, daughter of Deimachus. He was the bro ...

Acraepheus Acraepheus (Ancient Greek: Ἀκραιφεύς) was, in Greek mythology, a son of Apollo to whom the foundation of the town of Acraephnium, a Boeotian town on the lake Copais, was ascribed. In Acraephnium, Apollo was attached with the epithet Acr ...

, son of

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...

; and according to some writers it was the same as the

Homeric Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

Arne Arne may refer to: Places * Arne, Dorset, England, a village ** Arne RSPB reserve, a nature reserve adjacent to the village * Arné, Hautes-Pyrénées, Midi-Pyrénées, France * Arne (Boeotia), an ancient city in Boeotia, Greece * Arne (Thessa ...

. Here the

Thebans Thebes (; ell, Θήβα, ''Thíva'' ; grc, Θῆβαι, ''Thêbai'' .) is a city in Boeotia, Central Greece. It played an important role in Greek myths, as the site of the stories of Cadmus, Oedipus, Dionysus, Heracles and others. Archaeolo ...

took refuge, when their city was destroyed by

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...

. It contained a temple of

Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Roma ...

. At the distance of 15

stadia Stadia may refer to: * One of the plurals of stadium, along with "stadiums" * The plural of stadion, an ancient Greek unit of distance, which equals to 600 Greek feet (''podes''). * Stadia (Caria), a town of ancient Caria, now in Turkey * Stadi ...

from the town, on the right of the road, and upon Mt. Ptoum, was a celebrated sanctuary and oracle of Apollo Ptous. This oracle was consulted by Mardonius before the Battle of Plataea, and is said to have answered his emissary, who was a

Carian The Carian language is an extinct language of the Luwic subgroup of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The Carian language was spoken in Caria, a region of western Anatolia between the ancient regions of Lycia and Lydia, ...

, in the language of the latter. The name of the mountain was derived by some from

Ptous In Greek mythology, Ptous (; Ancient Greek: Πτῶος) may refer to the following: * Ptous, eponym of Mount Ptous in Boeotia on which the town Acraephnium was situated. He was believed to have been a son of either Athamas and Themisto, or of Acra ...

, a son of Apollo and Euxippe, and by others from

Leto In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Leto (; grc-gre, Λητώ , ''Lētṓ'', or , ''Lātṓ'' in Doric Greek) is a goddess and the mother of Apollo, the god of music, and Artemis, the goddess of the hunt.Hesiod, ''Theogony'404–409/ref> ...

having been frightened πτοέω by a boar, when she was about to bring forth in this place. Both Acraephia and the oracle belonged to Thebes. There was no temple of the Ptoan Apollo, properly so called;

Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...

mentions a tholos (θόλος), but other writers speak only of a

temenos A ''temenos'' ( Greek: ; plural: , ''temenē''). is a piece of land cut off and assigned as an official domain, especially to kings and chiefs, or a piece of land marked off from common uses and dedicated to a god, such as a sanctuary, holy gr ...

(τέμενος), ἱερόν, Χρηστήριον or μαντεῖον. According to

Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to: *Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium'' *Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC * Pausanias of Sicily, physician of t ...

, the oracle ceased after the capture of Thebes by Alexander; but the sanctuary still continued to retain its celebrity, as we see from the great Acraephian inscription, which August Böckh places in the time of

Marcus Aurelius Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: áːɾkus̠ auɾέːli.us̠ antɔ́ːni.us̠ English: ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good ...

and his son Commodus after 177 CE. It appears from this inscription that a festival was celebrated in honour of the Ptoan Apollo every four years. The ruins of Acraephia are situated at a short distance to the south of the modern village of the same name. The remains of the acropolis are visible on an isolated hill, a spur of Mt. Ptoum, and at its foot on the north and west are traces of the ancient town. Here stands the church of Agios Georgios (St. George) built out of the stones of the old town, and containing many fragments of antiquity. In this church

William Martin Leake William Martin Leake (14 January 17776 January 1860) was an English military man, topographer, diplomat, antiquarian, writer, and Fellow of the Royal Society. He served in the British military, spending much of his career in the Mediterrane ...

discovered the great inscription alluded to above, which is in honour of one of the citizens of the place called Epaminondas. The ruins near the fountain, which is now called Perdikóbrysis, probably belong to the sanctuary of the Ptoan Apollo.Leake, ''Northern Greece'', vol. ii. p. 295, ''et seq.''

References

{{coord, 38.451533, N, 23.219541, E, display=title, format=dms, source:http://dare.ht.lu.se/places/23115 Populated places in ancient Boeotia Former populated places in Greece