Myrmidons. The Myrmidons were an ancient nation of Greek mythology.
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.
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 fierce and hardy as ants, and intensely loyal to their leader. Because of their ant-ish origins, they wore brown armour. After a time, Aeacus exiled his two sons, Peleus and Telamon, for murdering their half-brother, Phocis. 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
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.
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 fierce and hardy as ants, and intensely loyal to their leader. Because of their ant-ish origins, they wore brown armour. After a time, Aeacus exiled his two sons, Peleus and Telamon, for murdering their half-brother, Phocis. 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
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