Pygmy (Greek mythology) Pygmy (Greek mythology) The Pygmies ( "Pygmaioi", from the adjective πυγμαῖος from πυγμή "pygmē", "the length of the forearm") were a tribe of diminutive humans in Greek mythology. 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. In art the scene was popular with little Pygmies
Amalthea (mythology) of Tenedos is said to have first pointed out these kids among the stars. But Musaeus says Jove was nursed by Themis and the nymph Amaltheia, to whom he was given by Ops, his mother. Now Amaltheia had as a pet a certain goat which is said to have nursed Jove.</poem> Amalthea (mythology) In Greek mythology, Amaltheia () is the most-frequently mentioned foster-mother of Zeus. The name "Amaltheia", in Greek "tender goddess", is clearly an epithet, signifying the presence of an earlier nurturing goddess, whom the Hellenes, whose myths we know, knew to be located in Crete, where Minoans may