{{Short description|Several individuals in Greek and Roman mythology}} {{for multi|the genus of butterflies|Acraea (butterfly){{!}}''Acraea'' (butterfly)|the ancient city|Acraea (city)}} '''Acraea''' (Ancient Greek: {{lang|grc|Ἀκραία}} means 'of the heights' from ''akraios'') was a name that had several uses in Greek and Roman mythology.<ref>{{Citation | last = Schmitz | first = Leonhard | contribution = Acraea | editor-last = Smith | editor-first = William | title = Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology | volume = 1 | pages = 14 | place = Boston, MA | year = 1867 | contribution-url = http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0023.html }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Bell|first=Robert E.|title=Women of Classical Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=1991|isbn=9780874365818|pages=3}}</ref>
* Acraea, the naiad daughter of the river-god Asterion near Mycenae, who together with her sisters Euboea and Prosymna acted as nurses to Hera.<ref>Pausanias, 2.17.1</ref> A hill opposite the temple of Hera near Mycenae was named Acraea for her.<ref>Pausanias, 2.17.2</ref>
* Acraea and Acraeus are also epithets given to various goddesses and gods whose temples were situated upon hills, including Zeus, Hera,<ref>Apollodorus, 1.9.28; Pausanias, 2.24.1</ref> Aphrodite,<ref>Pausanias, 1.1.3</ref> Athena and Artemis.<ref>Vitruvius, 1. 7</ref><ref>Ezechiel Spanheim, ''In Callimachi hymnos observationes, in Jov.'' 82.</ref>
== Notes == {{reflist|30em}}
== References ==
* Apollodorus, ''The Library'' with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0021 Greek text available from the same website]. *Bell, Robert E., ''Women of Classical Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary''. ABC-Clio. 1991. {{ISBN|9780874365818|0874365813}}. *Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. {{ISBN|0-674-99328-4}}. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library] *Pausanias, ''Graeciae Descriptio.'' ''3 vols''. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0159 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
{{SmithDGRBM|title= Acraea}}
{{Greek myth index}}
{{Subject bar |portal=Ancient Greece|portal2=Myths}}
Category:Naiads Category:Children of Greek river gods Category:Epithets of Zeus Category:Epithets of Hera Category:Epithets of Aphrodite Category:Epithets of Athena Category:Epithets of Artemis Category:Mythological Argives Category:Mythology of Argolis