The Pygmies were a tribe of diminutive humans in Greek mythology. Their name in Greek was Pygmaioi, the length of the forearm. According to the Iliad, they were involved in a constant war with the cranes, which migrated in winter to their homeland on the southern shores of the earth-encircling river Oceanus. One story describes the origin of the age-old battle, speaking of a Pygmy Queen named Gerana who offended the goddess Hera with her boasts of superior beauty, and was transformed into a crane. The Pygmies were often portrayed as pudgy, comical dwarfs.
In art the scene was popular with little Pygmies armed with spears and slings, riding on the backs of goats, battling the flying cranes. The 2nd-century BC tomb near Panticapaeum, Crimea "shows the battle of human pygmies with a flock of herons".
In another legend, the Pygmies once encountered Heracles, and climbing all over the sleeping hero attempted to bind him down, but when he stood up they fell off. The story was adapted by Jonathan Swift as a template for Lilliputians.
Later Greek geographers and writers attempted to place the Pygmies in a geographical context. Sometimes they were located in far India, at other times near the Ethiopians of Africa. The Pygmy bush tribes of central Africa were so named after the Greek mythological creatures by European explorers in the 19th century.
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Mythological Creatures
FantasyDo you know what an Ifrit is, or how Will-o'-the-Wisp attract people? Do you want to put a certain mythological creature in your story, but are confused on where to look it up? Well, you've come to the right place! "Mythological Creatures" will take...
