Pygmies in Roman Literature

Pygmies in Roman Literature

But Pliny goes on to show the reader that what he knows about pygmies he knows well. He already demonstrated knowledge of the story about the cranes but he elaborates:

At the extreme boundty of India to the East...[there are] the three span men and Pygmies, who do not exceed three spans, i.e. 27 inches in hight...This tribe Homer has also recorder as being beset by cranes. It is reported that in the spring time their entire band...goes in a body down to the sea and eats the cranes' eggs and chickens...that otherwise they could not protect themselves against the flocks of crans that would grow up; and that their houses are made of mud and feathers and egg shells.¹(Pliny 7.2.25-27)

Much as what happens in the Nilotic artwork, the description of pygmies versus the cranse adds levity to the work. It makes the pygmies seem weak and helpless since they have to attack the babies since a fullgrown crane army would be too much for them. Also pygmies seem like some sort of animal taking part in an annual hunt or migration. By doing this Pliny demeans the tribe just as the artwork does. This is something for Romans to laugh at and enables them to enjoy their dominance. These sort of things make the Romans feel good since they reinforce the power structure the Romans have imposed on the world.

At the same time, pygmies are almost mythical creatures and not a real tribe somewhere. They may live in India or Ethiopia or maybe once in Thrace but no one really knows. All the accounts Pliny or Herodotus rely on are second- or third- hand and no author himself has seen them. So it is fitting that Pliny inclues pygmies with other odd creatures:

In the interior [of Ethiopia] there are a tribe of people without noses, their whole face being perfectly flat, and other tribes that have no upperlip and ohter no tongues. Also one section has the mouth closed up and has no nostrils, but only a single orifice through which it breathes as sucks in drink by means of oat straws...Some writers have actually reported a race of pygmies living among the marshes in which the Nile rises.²(Pliny 6.35.188)

By placing pygmies with such strange beings, Pliny includes them amongst these creatures which are hard to believe to exist. Such exoticness exists in his writing because so little was actually know of deepest Africa. Herodotus's adventurers could not converse with the men they found and probably very little contact had been made since then. Thus this mythicness just covers for the Roman's lack of real knowledge. Also this just makes pygmies more of an 'other' than they already were and places the Romans significantly above them.

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Conclusion

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But Pliny goes on to show the reader that what he knows about pygmies he knows well. He already demonstrated knowledge of the story about the cranes but he elaborates:

At the extreme boundty of India to the East...[there are] the three span men and Pygmies, who do not exceed three spans, i.e. 27 inches in hight...This tribe Homer has also recorder as being beset by cranes. It is reported that in the spring time their entire band...goes in a body down to the sea and eats the cranes' eggs and chickens...that otherwise they could not protect themselves against the flocks of crans that would grow up; and that their houses are made of mud and feathers and egg shells.¹(Pliny 7.2.25-27)

Much as what happens in the Nilotic artwork, the description of pygmies versus the cranse adds levity to the work. It makes the pygmies seem weak and helpless since they have to attack the babies since a fullgrown crane army would be too much for them. Also pygmies seem like some sort of animal taking part in an annual hunt or migration. By doing this Pliny demeans the tribe just as the artwork does. This is something for Romans to laugh at and enables them to enjoy their dominance. These sort of things make the Romans feel good since they reinforce the power structure the Romans have imposed on the world.

At the same time, pygmies are almost mythical creatures and not a real tribe somewhere. They may live in India or Ethiopia or maybe once in Thrace but no one really knows. All the accounts Pliny or Herodotus rely on are second- or third- hand and no author himself has seen them. So it is fitting that Pliny inclues pygmies with other odd creatures:

In the interior [of Ethiopia] there are a tribe of people without noses, their whole face being perfectly flat, and other tribes that have no upperlip and ohter no tongues. Also one section has the mouth closed up and has no nostrils, but only a single orifice through which it breathes as sucks in drink by means of oat straws...Some writers have actually reported a race of pygmies living among the marshes in which the Nile rises.²(Pliny 6.35.188)

By placing pygmies with such strange beings, Pliny includes them amongst these creatures which are hard to believe to exist. Such exoticness exists in his writing because so little was actually know of deepest Africa. Herodotus's adventurers could not converse with the men they found and probably very little contact had been made since then. Thus this mythicness just covers for the Roman's lack of real knowledge. Also this just makes pygmies more of an 'other' than they already were and places the Romans significantly above them.

<-Roman Authors Artwork->

Conclusion