Key Points

- Achilles's elite warriors

- They are related / descendants / created from ants

Brief Bio

In Greek mythology, the Myrmidons were an ancient Thessalian 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. In one account, Zeus seduced Eurymedousa in the form of an ant.

In another account (Ovid), 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 myrmekes, the ants of the island, were unaffected by the sickness, Zeus responded by transforming them into a race of men, the Myrmidons. They were as fierce and hardy as ants, and intensely loyal to their leader.