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
Goddess movement of the Greek mythology such as the ritual year and annual sacrifice of the king were adopted as the basis to describe the goddess' aging and rejuvenation with the seasons. Myths from ancient cultures are often reinterpreted as new evidence comes to light. Reinterpretation becomes necessary because myths from religions that included goddesses, those after the Bronze Age, including Greek and Roman mythology, are believed to have a patriarchal bias. These new interpretations by Goddess movement authors and women scholars help to provide a truer mirror of the social set up of the period in which the story was written.