The Pygmies ( grc-gre, Πυγμαῖοι ''Pygmaioi'', from the adjective πυγμαῖος, from the noun πυγμή ''pygmē'' "fist, boxing, distance from elbow to knuckles," from the adverb πύξ ''pyx'' "with the fist") were a tribe of diminutive humans in
Greek mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities ...
.
Attestations
According to the ''
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the '' Odys ...
'', 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:
According to
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...
in
History of Animals
''History of Animals'' ( grc-gre, Τῶν περὶ τὰ ζῷα ἱστοριῶν, ''Ton peri ta zoia historion'', "Inquiries on Animals"; la, Historia Animalium, "History of Animals") is one of the major texts on biology by the ancient Gr ...
, the story is true:
Hesiod
Hesiod (; grc-gre, Ἡσίοδος ''Hēsíodos'') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by western authors as 'the first written poet ...
wrote that the
Epaphus In Greek mythology, Epaphus (; Ancient Greek: Ἔπᾰφος), also called Apis or Munantius, was a son of the Greek God Zeus and king of Egypt.
Family
Epaphus was the son of ZeusHesiod, '' Ehoiai'' 40a as cited in ''Oxyrhynchus Papyri 1358'' fr ...
, son of
Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...
, through his daughters was the ancestor of the "dark Libyans, and high-souled Aethiopians, and the Underground-folk and feeble Pygmies".
One story in
Ovid
Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...
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.
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
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
"shows the battle of human pygmies with a flock of herons".
The Pygmies were often portrayed as pudgy, comical
dwarves.
In another legend, the Pygmies once encountered
Heracles
Heracles ( ; grc-gre, Ἡρακλῆς, , glory/fame of Hera), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptiv ...
, 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
Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dubl ...
as a template for
Lilliputians.
St. Augustine (354–430) mentions the "Pigmies" in ''
The City of God
''On the City of God Against the Pagans'' ( la, De civitate Dei contra paganos), often called ''The City of God'', is a book of Christian philosophy written in Latin by Augustine of Hippo in the early 5th century AD. The book was in response ...
'', Book 16, chapter 8 entitled, "Whether Certain Monstrous Races of Men Are Derived From the Stock of Adam or Noah's Sons".
Later Greek geographers and writers attempted to place the Pygmies in a geographical context. Sometimes they were located in far
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, at other times near the
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
ns of Africa. The
Pygmy
In anthropology, pygmy peoples are ethnic groups whose average height is unusually short. The term pygmyism is used to describe the phenotype of endemic short stature (as opposed to disproportionate dwarfism occurring in isolated cases in a pop ...
bush tribes of central Africa were so named after the Greek mythological creatures by European explorers in the 19th century.
Greeks used the proverbial phrase "fitting Pygmies' spoils onto a colossus", in reference "to those toiling in vain" and also in reference "to those bringing together incompatible things, and especially when we compare tiny things to huge ones".
Suda, alpha,1002
/ref>
Descriptions in literature
Ancient
From Pliny's ''Natural History'':
From ''The Life of Apollonius of Tyana'' by Flavius Philostratus
Philostratus or Lucius Flavius Philostratus (; grc-gre, Φιλόστρατος ; c. 170 – 247/250 AD), called "the Athenian", was a Greek sophist of the Roman imperial period. His father was a minor sophist of the same name. He was born probab ...
:
From ''Imagines'' by Philostratus
Philostratus or Lucius Flavius Philostratus (; grc-gre, Φιλόστρατος ; c. 170 – 247/250 AD), called "the Athenian", was a Greek sophist of the Roman imperial period. His father was a minor sophist of the same name. He was born probab ...
:
From '' Deipnosophistae'' by Athenaeus
Athenaeus of Naucratis (; grc, Ἀθήναιος ὁ Nαυκρατίτης or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; la, Athenaeus Naucratita) was a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourishing about the end of th ...
:
Medieval
From ''The Travels of Sir John Mandeville
Sir John Mandeville is the supposed author of ''The Travels of Sir John Mandeville'', a travel memoir which first circulated between 1357 and 1371. The earliest-surviving text is in French.
By aid of translations into many other languages, the ...
'':
Modern
From '' Tanglewood Tales
The Pygmies
' by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion.
He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...
:
See also
*Chalybes
The Chalybes ( grc, Χάλυβες/Χάλυβοι, ka, ხალიბები, Khalibebi) and Chaldoi ( grc, Χάλδοι, ) were peoples mentioned by classical authors as living in Pontus and Cappadocia in northern Anatolia during Classical ...
*Dactyl (mythology)
In Greek mythology, the Dactyls or Daktyloi (; from grc, Δάκτυλοι ''Dáktuloi'' "fingers") were the archaic mythical race of male beings associated with the Great Mother, whether as Cybele or Rhea. Their numbers vary, but often they we ...
*Telchines
In Greek mythology, the Telchines ( grc, Τελχῖνες, ''Telkhines'') were the original inhabitants of the island of Rhodes and were known in Crete and Cyprus.
Family
Their parents were either Pontus and Gaia or Tartarus and Nemesis or else ...
*Pygmy peoples
In anthropology, pygmy peoples are ethnic groups whose average height is unusually short. The term pygmyism is used to describe the phenotype of endemic short stature (as opposed to disproportionate dwarfism occurring in isolated cases in a p ...
References
Sources
*Aristotle, ''History of Animals''. Translated by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson
Internet Classics Archive
*Homer, ''The Iliad of Homer''. Translated and with an Introduction by Richmond Lattimore. The University of Chicago Press, 1961.
*Kubiĭovych, Volodymyr and Shevchenka, Naukove tovarystvo im. ''Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopaedia''. University of Toronto, 1963.
*Mandeville, John, ''The Travels of Sir John Mandeville: The Fantastic 14th-Century Account of a Journey to the East'',
*Ritson, Joseph, ''Fairy Tales, Now First Collected: To which are prefixed two dissertations: 1. On Pygmies. 2. On Fairies'', London, 1831, (Adamant Media Corporation, 2004)
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pygmy (Greek Mythology)
Africa in Greek mythology
Asia in Greek mythology
Legendary tribes in Greco-Roman historiography
Elementals