Aracynthus (Ancient Greek: Ἀράκυνθος) was a range of mountains in Aetolia, the exact position of which is uncertain. It was said to run in a south-easterly direction from the Achelous River to the Evenos, and separating the lower plain of Aetolia near the sea from the upper plain above the lakes Hyria and Trichonida.[1][2][3]

Pliny the Elder[4] and Gaius Julius Solinus[5] erroneously call Aracynthus a mountain of Acarnania. If we can trust the authority of later writers and of the Roman poets, there was a mountain of the name of Aracynthus both in Boeotia and in Attica, or perhaps on the frontiers of the two countries. Thus Stephanus of Byzantium[6] and Maurus Servius Honoratus[7] speak of a Boeotian Aracynthus; and Sextus Empiricus,[8] Lutatius,[9] and Vibius Sequester[10] mention an Attic Aracynthus. As noted by McClure (2011), the Roman poet Statius, writing during the reign of Domitian, mentions both a Boeotian and Aetolian Aracynthus in his epic Thebaid.[11]

The mountain is connected with the Boeotian hero Amphion both by Propertius[12] and by Virgil,[13] and the line of Virgil from Eclogue 2 “Amphion Dircaeus in Actaeo Aracyntho”—would seem to place the mountain on the frontiers of Boeotia and Attica.[14]

There was also said to be a temple to Aphrodite Aracynthias on Aracynthus.

Notes

  1. ↑ Strabo, Geographica pp. 450, 460
  2. ↑ Dionysius Periegetes 431
  3. ↑ William Martin Leake, Travels in Northern Greece, vol. i. p. 121
  4. ↑ Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 4.2.3
  5. ↑ Gaius Julius Solinus 7.22
  6. ↑ Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica s.v.
  7. ↑ Maurus Servius Honoratus, ad Virg. Ecl. 2.24
  8. ↑ Sextus Empiricus, adv. Gramm. 100.12, p. 270
  9. ↑ Lutatius, On the Thebaid of Statius 2.239
  10. ↑ Vibius Sequester, de Month. p. 27
  11. ↑ see McClure, J. (2011). "Thebaid 2.239, 2.720 and the Problem of Aracynthus," Mnemosyne 64: 58-81.
  12. ↑ Propertius 3.13. 42
  13. ↑ Virgil, Eclogues 2.24
  14. ↑ Comp. Brandstäter, Die Gesch. des Aetol. Landes, p. 108

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William (1854–1857). "Aracynthus". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray. p. 185.

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