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Greek Mythology >> Bestiary >> Legendary Tribes >> Macrocephali (Makrokephaloi)

MAKROKEPHALOI

Greek Name

Μακροκεφαλος
Μακροκεφαλοι

Transliteration

Makrokephalos
Makrokephaloi

Latin Spelling

Macrocephalus
Macrocephali

Translation

Long-, Giant-Headed
(makros, kephalê)

THE MAKROKEPHALOI (Macrocephali) were an African or Indian tribe of long- or giant-headed men.

PARENTS

Human tribe descended from EPAPHOS & GAIA (Hesiod Catalogues of Women Frag 40A)

CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

Hesiod, Catalogues of Women Fragment 44 (from Strabo, Geography 1. 13) (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek Epic C8th or C7th B.C.) :
"No one would accuse Hesiod of ignorance though he speaks of the Hemikynes (Half-Dog People) and the Makrokephaloi (Macrocephali) (Great-Headed People) and the Pygmaioi (Pygmies)."

Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 3. 45-47 (trans. Conybeare) (Greek biographer C1st to C2nd A.D.) :
"[The C1st A.D. prophet Apollonios of Tyana asked the Indian sage Iarkhas (Iarchas)] about the Men who live Underground (anthropoi hypogen) and the Pygmaioi (Pygmies) also and the Skiapodes (Sciapods) (Shadow-Foots); and larkhas answered his questions thus : ‘. . . As to men that are Skiapodes (Shadow-Foots) or Makrokephaloi (Macrocephali) (Long-Heads), and as to the other poetical fancies which the treatise of Skylax recounts about them, he said that they didn't live anywhere on the earth, and least of all in India.’"

SOURCES

GREEK

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A complete bibliography of the translations quoted on this page.