Acraea

For the genus of butterfly, see Acraea (genus).

Acraea (Greek: Ἀκραία) was a name that had several uses in Greek and Roman mythology.^[1]

Acraea was a daughter of the river-god Asterion near Mycenae, who together with her sisters Euboea and Prosymna (Πρόσυμνα) acted as nurses to Hera. A hill Acraea opposite the temple of Hera near Mycenae derived its name from her.^[2]

Acraea and Acraeus are also epithets given to various goddesses and gods whose temples were situated upon hills, such as Zeus, Hera, Aphrodite, Pallas, Artemis, and others.^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]

References

^ Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Acraea", in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1, Boston, MA, pp. 14, http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0023.html
^ Pausanias, ii. 17. § 2
^ Pausanias, i. 1. § 3, ii. 24. § 1
^ Apollodorus, i. 9. §28
^ Vitruv. i. 7
^ Ezechiel Spanheim, In Callimachi hymnos observationes, in Jov. 82.

Sources

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).