Myrmidons

"Ant-people." A people who inhabited Phthia in Thessaly, which was ruled by Achilles. They supposedly came from Aegina. When a terrible plague depopulated the island, Zeus, at the request of Aeacus, turned ants into people. Aeacus' son Peleus led the "Ant-people" from Aegina to Thessaly. The Myrmidons were Achilles' faithful soldiers in the Trojan War.

See also Myrmex and Myrmidon, their eponymous ancestors.

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The name comes from the Greek μυρμηδών, "ant's nest," and μύρμηξ, "ant." The word myrmidon became to mean a faithful follower who obeys orders unquestioningly.

References

Sources

  • Homer. Iliad xvi, 197; xvii, 475 ff.
  • Hyginus. Fabulae, 52.
  • Ovid. Metamorphoses vii, 618 ff.
  • Virgil. Aeneid iv, 402, with the note of Servius.