
Myrmidons (and a little Myrmex)

In Greek mythology, the Myrmidons (or Myrmidones; Greek: Μυρμιδόνες) were an ancient Thessalian Greek tribe. In Homer’s Iliad, the Myrmidons are the soldiers commanded by Achilles. Their eponymous ancestor was Myrmidon, a king of Phthiotis who was a son of Zeus and “wide-ruling” Eurymedousa, a princess of Phthiotis. She was seduced by him in the form of an ant. An etiological myth of their origins, simply expanding upon their supposed etymology—the name in Classical Greek was interpreted as “ant-people”, from murmekes, “ants”—was first mentioned by Ovid, in Metamorphoses: in Ovid’s telling, the Myrmidons were simple worker ants on the island of Aegina.
- The Journal of Indo-European Studies. 2003. p. 289.
Achilles is king of the Myrmidons, a Thessalian Greek tribe, and brought them with him to Troy as his troops.
- Halliwell, Stephen (12 November 2015). Aristophanes: Frogs and Other Plays: A Verse Translation, with Introduction and Notes. Oxford University Press. p. 287. ISBN 978-0-19-106623-8.
Myrmidons (= the Thessalian tribe of Achilles)
- Achilles himself is “the great Myrmidon/Who broils in loud applause” in Shakespeare‘s Troilus and Cressida.
Ovid’s myth of the repopulation of Aegina
Hera, queen of the gods, sent a plague to kill all the human inhabitants of Aegina because the island was named for one of the lovers of Zeus. King Aeacus, a son of Zeus and the intended target of Hera along with his mother, prayed to his father for a means to repopulate the island. As the ants of the island were unaffected by the sickness, Zeus responded by transforming them into a race of people, the Myrmidons. They were as fierce and hardy as ants, and intensely loyal to their leader. Because of their antly origins, they wore brown armour.[citation needed]
- Hamilton, Edith (1969) [1940]. “Brief Myths Arranged Alphabetically”. Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes (Renewal ed.). New York: Mentor Books. p. 310. ISBN 0-451-62803-9.
After a time, Aeacus exiled his two sons, Peleus and Telamon, for murdering their half-brother, Phocus. Peleus went to Phthia and a group of Myrmidons followed him to Thessaly. Peleus’s son, Achilles, brought them to Troy to fight in the Trojan War. They feature as the loyal followers of Achilles in most accounts of the Trojan War.
Another tradition states that the Myrmidons had no such remarkable beginnings, but were merely the descendants of Myrmidon, a Thessalian nobleman, who married Peisidice, the daughter of Aeolus, king of Thessaly. Myrmidon was the father of Actor and Antiphus. As king of Phthia, Actor (or his son) invited Peleus to stay in Thessaly.
Medieval Myrmidons
Achilles was described by Leo the Deacon (born ca. 950) not as Hellene, but as Scythian, while according to the Byzantine author John Malalas (c. 491–578), his army was made up of a tribe previously known as Myrmidons and “known now as Bulgars“. The 12th-century Byzantine poet John Tzetzes also identified the Myrmidons with the Bulgars, whom he also identified with the Paeonians, although the latter may be intended in a purely geographical sense. In the 11th century, Michael Attaleiates called the Rus’ Myrmidons, but this usage did not catch on.
- Ekonomou, Andrew (2007). Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes. UK: Lexington Books. p. 123. ISBN 9780739119778. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
- Jeffreys, Elizabeth; Croke, Brian (1990). Studies in John Malalas. Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, Department of Modern Greek, University of Sydney. p. 206. ISBN 9780959362657. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
- Mitko B. Panov (2019), The Blinded State: Historiographic Debates about Samuel Cometopoulos and His State (10th–11th Century), Brill, p. 109.
- Anthony Kaldellis (2015), Byzantine Readings of Ancient Historians, Routledge, p. 79.
- Anthony Kaldellis (2013), Ethnography After Antiquity, University of Pennsylvania Press, p. 112.
According to Andrew Ekonomous, these represent intentional distortions designed to “minimize the valor of pagan heroes, and eventually to extinguish their memory altogether”. Anthony Kaldellis, on the other hand, argues that such use of classical ethnonyms for modern peoples “do not really fall under the category of distortion at all”.
- Ekonomou, Andrew (2007). Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes. UK: Lexington Books. p. 123. ISBN 9780739119778. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
- Anthony Kaldellis (2013), Ethnography After Antiquity, University of Pennsylvania Press, p. 112.
Modern Myrmidons
The Myrmidons of Greek myth were known for their loyalty to their leaders, so that in pre-industrial Europe the word “myrmidon” carried many of the same connotations that “robot” does today. “Myrmidon” later came to mean “hired ruffian”, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.
- Henry Fielding in Tom Jones (1749, Book XV, ch. 5) employs the term in the sense of “hired thugs”: “The door flew open, and in came Squire Western, with his parson and a set of myrmidons at his heels.”
- The Royal Navy has had several ships called HMS Myrmidon.
- The United States Navy has had one vessel named USS Myrmidon (ARL-16)
- “The Myrmidons” was the name adopted in 1865 by a private dining society in Merton College, Oxford. It is thought to be the oldest continuously active dining society in the University of Oxford. Max Beerbohm was a member, and the club called “The Junta” that features in his Oxford novel Zuleika Dobson is probably modeled on the Myrmidons. Other former members include Lord Randolph Churchill and Andrew Irvine.
See also
- Myrmex, woman who became an ant
- Myrmex (beetle), a genus of beetles in the family Curculionidae, Snout and Bark beetles (weevils)
- Myrmex, former name of the genus of ants now called Pseudomyrmex – the genus is best known for several species that are obligate mutualists with certain species of Acacia (the godforsaken ‘pea’ family).
In Greek mythology, Myrmex (Ancient Greek: Μύρμηξ) may refer to the following two individuals and a being:
- Myrmex, an Attic maiden who was beloved by Athena for her chastity and intelligence. When the goddess had invented the plough, the girl boastfully pretended to have made the discovery herself, whereupon she was metamorphosed into an ant.
- Myrmex, according to Philochorus, was the father of Melite, from whom the Attic demos of Melite derived its name.
- Harpocration, s.v. Melite (= Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Müller, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, 1. 396, frg. 74)
- Myrmex, that is, an ant, from which animal, according to some traditions, the Myrmidons in Thessaly derived their name. Zeus made his son Aeacus king of Thessaly, usually the island of Aegina, which was not inhabited by human beings. After a great famine had occurred, the king lost his allies and could not protect himself on the account of the scarcity of men. Aeacus while gazing at some ants begged his father to give him men for defense. Then, the god in answer of the prayer, metamorphosed all the ants of the country into men, who were thence called Myrmidones, because in Greek ants are called ‘myrmekes’. In the account of Strabo, these people received their name because they excavated the earth after the manner of ants and spread the soil over the rocks, so as to have ground to till, and also because they lived in the dugouts, refraining from the use of soil for bricks
- Hyginus, Fabulae 52; Servius’ Commentary on Virgil, Aeneid 4.402
- Strabo, 8.6.16 p. 375 & 9.5.5 p. 433
- See also
References
- Gaius Julius Hyginus, Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- Maurus Servius Honoratus, In Vergilii carmina comentarii. Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii carmina commentarii; recensuerunt Georgius Thilo et Hermannus Hagen. Georgius Thilo. Leipzig. B. G. Teubner. 1881. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Strabo, The Geography of Strabo. Edition by H.L. Jones. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Strabo, Geographica edited by A. Meineke. Leipzig: Teubner. 1877. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.