Cynoscephalae
Κυνὸς κεφαλαί
Cynoscephalae (Κυνὸς κεφαλαί),the names of two ranges of hills, so called from their supposed resemblance to the heads of dogs.
1.
In Thessaly, a little to the south of Scotussa, in whose territory they were situated. They are described by Polybius (18.5) as rugged, broken, and of considerable height; and are memorable as the scene of two battles: one fought, in B.C. 364, between the Thebans and Alexander of Pherae, in which Pelopidas was slain; and the other, of still greater celebrity, fought in B.C. 197, in which the last Philip of Macedon was defeated by the Roman consul Flamininus. (Plut. Pel. 32; Strab. ix. p.441; Plb. 18.3, seq.; Liv. 33.6, seq.; Plut. Flam. 8; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iv. p. 459, seq.)
2.
Hills between Thebes and Thespiae. (Xen. Hell. 5.4. 15, Agesil. 2.22.) Near them, or on them, was a village of the same name, which is mentioned by the biographers of Pindar as the birthplace of the poet. (Steph. B. sub voce Κυνὸς κεφαλαί.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.