Myrmidons

The Myrmidons (Μυρμιδών) were originally worker ants. On the island of Aegina, Hera sent a plague that wiped out the inhabitants of the island. Aeacus the king of Aegina was the son of Zeus and Aegina; therefore he was a target of her enmity.

Aeacus and his mother were the only survivors on the island. Aeacus saw ants that were unaffected from the pestilence. Aeacus prayed to his father that if he and his mother were to survive on the island, he would need to repopulate the island with people. Aeacus asked that the people would be as hardy as worker ants.

Zeus answered his son's prayer by transforming the ants into humans. These ants became known as Myrmidons. The Myrmidons were also fierce warriors as well as loyal subjects. See also Aegina and Aeacus in the Wrath of Heaven.

When Aeacus exiled his two sons, Peleus and Telamon, for murdering their half-brother Phocis, Peleus went to Phthia. A group of Myrmidons followed Peleus to Thessaly.

When the Greeks fought in the Trojan War, Peleus' son Achilles brought the Myrmidons to Troy. These Myrmidon warriors wore black armour and shields. Neoptolemus, the grandson of Peleus, brought the Myrmidons home after the war.

A different tradition says that the Myrmidons had no such remarkable beginning, but were descendants of Myrmidon, a Thessalian nobleman. Myrmidon 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.

The term myrmidon later came to mean "hired ruffian" according to the Oxford Dictionary.