Pygmy

Generally speaking, pygmy (from Greek pygmaios, "fist sized", a kind of dwarf in Greek mythology) can refer to any human or animal of unusually small size, for example, the pygmy hippopotamus.

Myth

In Greek myth, pygmies were a tribe of people 27" tall (about 68.5cm) in India who warred with cranes.

Related Topics:
Greek myth - India

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"Beyond these in the most outlying mountain region we are told of the Three-Span (Trispithami) Pygmae who do not exceed three spans, that is, twenty-seven inches, in height; the climate is healthy and always spring-like, as it is protected on the north by a range of mountains; this tribe Homer has also recorded as being beset by cranes. It is reported that in springtime their entire band, mounted on the backs of rams and she-goats and armed with arrows, goes in a body down to the sea and eats the cranes' eggs and chickens, and that this outing occupies three months; and that otherwise they could not protect themselves against the flocks of cranes would grow up; and that their houses are made of mud and feathers and egg-shells. Aristotle says that the Pygmae live in caves, but in the rest of this statement about them he agrees with the other authorities." -- Pliny Natural History 7.23-30

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