Acraephia or Akraiphia (Ancient Greek: Ἀκραιφία),[1][2] Acraephiae or Akraiphiai (Ἀκραιφίαι),[3] Acraephium or Akraiphion (Ἀκραίφιον),[4] Acraephnium or Akraiphnion (Ἀκραίφνιον),[5] was a town of ancient Boeotia on the slope of Mount Ptoum (Πτῶον) and on the eastern bank of the Lake Copais, which was here called Ἀκραιφὶς λίμνη from the town.
The name of the mountain was derived by some from Ptous, a son of Apollo and Euxippe, and by others from Leto having been frightened πτοέω by a boar, when she was about to bring forth in this place.
There was no temple of the Ptoan Apollo, properly so called; Plutarch mentions a tholos (θόλος),[6] but other writers speak only of a temenos (τέμενος), ἱερόν, Χρηστήριον or μαντεῖον.
[1][4][5][7][2][8] According to Pausanias, 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 and his son Commodus after 177 CE.
In this church William Martin Leake discovered the great inscription alluded to above, which is in honour of one of the citizens of the place called Epaminondas.