Aracynthus () 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.Strabo, Geographica pp. 450, 460Dionysius Periegetes 431William Martin Leake, Travels in Northern Greece, vol. i. p. 121
Pliny the ElderPliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 4.2.3 and Gaius Julius SolinusGaius Julius Solinus 7.22 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 ByzantiumStephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica s.v. and Maurus Servius HonoratusMaurus Servius Honoratus, ad Virg. Ecl. 2.24 speak of a Boeotian Aracynthus; and Sextus Empiricus,Sextus Empiricus, adv. Gramm. 100.12, p. 270 Lutatius,Lutatius, On the Thebaid of Statius 2.239 and Vibius SequesterVibius Sequester, de Month. p. 27 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.see McClure, J. (2011). "Thebaid 2.239, 2.720 and the Problem of Aracynthus," Mnemosyne 64: 58-81.
The mountain is connected with the Boeotian hero Amphion both by PropertiusPropertius 3.13. 42 and by Virgil,Virgil, Eclogues 2.24 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.Comp. Brandstäter, Die Gesch. des Aetol. Landes, p. 108
There was also said to be a temple to Aphrodite Aracynthias on Aracynthus.
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