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The Myrmidons (or Myrmidones; ) were an ancient tribe of Greek mythology
Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
. They were very brave and skilled warriors as described in Homer's Iliad
ILiad

The iLiad is an electronic handheld device, or e-book device, which can be used for document reading and editing. Like the Sony Reader or Amazon Kindle, the iLiad makes use of an electronic paper display....
, and were commanded by Achilles
Achilles

In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greeks hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad, which takes for its theme ; the Wrath of Achilles....
. Their eponym
Eponym

An eponym is a person, whether real or fictitious, after whom a particular toponym, ethnonym, regnal year, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named....
ous ancestor was Myrmidon, a king of Phthiotis
Phthiotis

Phthiotis is one of the prefectures of Greece. The capital is the city of Lamia . It is bordered by the Maliac Gulf to the east, Boeotia in the south, Phocis in the south, Aetolia-Acarnania in the southwest, Eurytania in the west, Karditsa Prefecture in the north, Larissa Prefecture in the north, and Magnesia in the northeast....
 who was a son of Zeus
Zeus

Zeus in Greek mythology is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky father and List of thunder gods. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull , and oak....
 and "wide-ruling" Eurymedousa
Eurymedousa

Eurymedousa is a name attributed to two women in Greek mythology.*Eurymedousa, daughter of Cletor or Archelaus. Zeus had intercourse with her in the shape of an ant and she gave birth to Myrmidon....
, a princess of Phthiotis
Phthiotis

Phthiotis is one of the prefectures of Greece. The capital is the city of Lamia . It is bordered by the Maliac Gulf to the east, Boeotia in the south, Phocis in the south, Aetolia-Acarnania in the southwest, Eurytania in the west, Karditsa Prefecture in the north, Larissa Prefecture in the north, and Magnesia in the northeast....
. She was seduced by him in the form of an ant. An etiological myth
Etiology

Etiology is the study of Causality. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek , aitiologia, "giving a reason for" .The word is most commonly used in medical and philosophical theories, where it is used to refer to the study of why things occur, or even the reasons behind the way that things act, and is used in philosophy, physics, psy...
 of their origins, simply expanding upon their supposed etymology — the name in Classical Greek was interpreted as "ant
Ant

Ants are Eusociality insects of the family Formicidae, and along with the related wasps and bees, they belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolution from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and Evolutionary radiation after the rise of flowering plants....
-people", from µ??µ?d?? (murmedon) "ant's nest" and that from µ??µ?? (murmex) "ant" - was first mentioned by Ovid
Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso was a Roman Empire poet known as Ovid to the English language-speaking world, who wrote about love, seduction, and Roman mythology transformation....
, in Metamorphoses
Metamorphoses (poem)

The Metamorphoses by the Ancient Rome poet Ovid is a Narrative poetry in fifteen books that describes the Creation myth and history of the world....
: in Ovid's telling, King Aeacus
Aeacus

Aeacus was a Greek mythology king of the island of Aegina in the Saronic Gulf.He was son of Zeus and Aegina , a daughter of the river-god Asopus....
 of Aegina
Aegina

Aegina is one of the Greek islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, 17 miles from Athens. Tradition derives the name from Aegina, the mother of Aeacus, who was born in and ruled the island....
, father of Peleus
Peleus

In Greek mythology, Pele?s was a Greek hero cult who was already known to Homer. Peleus was the son of Aeacus, king of the island of Aegina, and Ende?s, the oread of Mount Pelion in Thessaly; he became the father of Achilles....
, pleaded with Zeus to populate his country after a terrible plague.






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The Myrmidons (or Myrmidones; ) were an ancient tribe of Greek mythology
Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
. They were very brave and skilled warriors as described in Homer's Iliad
ILiad

The iLiad is an electronic handheld device, or e-book device, which can be used for document reading and editing. Like the Sony Reader or Amazon Kindle, the iLiad makes use of an electronic paper display....
, and were commanded by Achilles
Achilles

In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greeks hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad, which takes for its theme ; the Wrath of Achilles....
. Their eponym
Eponym

An eponym is a person, whether real or fictitious, after whom a particular toponym, ethnonym, regnal year, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named....
ous ancestor was Myrmidon, a king of Phthiotis
Phthiotis

Phthiotis is one of the prefectures of Greece. The capital is the city of Lamia . It is bordered by the Maliac Gulf to the east, Boeotia in the south, Phocis in the south, Aetolia-Acarnania in the southwest, Eurytania in the west, Karditsa Prefecture in the north, Larissa Prefecture in the north, and Magnesia in the northeast....
 who was a son of Zeus
Zeus

Zeus in Greek mythology is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky father and List of thunder gods. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull , and oak....
 and "wide-ruling" Eurymedousa
Eurymedousa

Eurymedousa is a name attributed to two women in Greek mythology.*Eurymedousa, daughter of Cletor or Archelaus. Zeus had intercourse with her in the shape of an ant and she gave birth to Myrmidon....
, a princess of Phthiotis
Phthiotis

Phthiotis is one of the prefectures of Greece. The capital is the city of Lamia . It is bordered by the Maliac Gulf to the east, Boeotia in the south, Phocis in the south, Aetolia-Acarnania in the southwest, Eurytania in the west, Karditsa Prefecture in the north, Larissa Prefecture in the north, and Magnesia in the northeast....
. She was seduced by him in the form of an ant. An etiological myth
Etiology

Etiology is the study of Causality. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek , aitiologia, "giving a reason for" .The word is most commonly used in medical and philosophical theories, where it is used to refer to the study of why things occur, or even the reasons behind the way that things act, and is used in philosophy, physics, psy...
 of their origins, simply expanding upon their supposed etymology — the name in Classical Greek was interpreted as "ant
Ant

Ants are Eusociality insects of the family Formicidae, and along with the related wasps and bees, they belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolution from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and Evolutionary radiation after the rise of flowering plants....
-people", from µ??µ?d?? (murmedon) "ant's nest" and that from µ??µ?? (murmex) "ant" - was first mentioned by Ovid
Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso was a Roman Empire poet known as Ovid to the English language-speaking world, who wrote about love, seduction, and Roman mythology transformation....
, in Metamorphoses
Metamorphoses (poem)

The Metamorphoses by the Ancient Rome poet Ovid is a Narrative poetry in fifteen books that describes the Creation myth and history of the world....
: in Ovid's telling, King Aeacus
Aeacus

Aeacus was a Greek mythology king of the island of Aegina in the Saronic Gulf.He was son of Zeus and Aegina , a daughter of the river-god Asopus....
 of Aegina
Aegina

Aegina is one of the Greek islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, 17 miles from Athens. Tradition derives the name from Aegina, the mother of Aeacus, who was born in and ruled the island....
, father of Peleus
Peleus

In Greek mythology, Pele?s was a Greek hero cult who was already known to Homer. Peleus was the son of Aeacus, king of the island of Aegina, and Ende?s, the oread of Mount Pelion in Thessaly; he became the father of Achilles....
, pleaded with Zeus to populate his country after a terrible plague. Zeus said his people would number as the ants on his sacred oak, and from the ants sprang the people Aegina
Aegina

Aegina is one of the Greek islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, 17 miles from Athens. Tradition derives the name from Aegina, the mother of Aeacus, who was born in and ruled the island....
, the Myrmidons.

Later use of the term

The Myrmidons of Greek myth were known for their loyalty to their leaders, so that in pre-industrial Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
 the word "myrmidon" carried many of the same connotations that "robot
Robot

A robot is a virtual or mechanical artificial agent. In practice, it is usually an Electromechanics which, by its appearance or movements, conveys a sense that it has Intention or Agency of its own....
" does today. Myrmidon later came to mean "hired ruffian" (according to the Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press , is a comprehensive dictionary of the English language. Two fully-bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989; as of December 2008 the dictionary's current editors have completed a quarter of the third edition....
) or "a loyal follower, especially one who executes orders without question, protest, or pity, unquestioning followers." (Dictionary.com
Reference.com

Reference.com is an online information source that provides encyclopedia, dictionary, thesaurus, and other content. The site also provides text Machine translation and serves as a search engine portal for Ask.com....
).

Myrmidons is also the title of the first of a trilogy of plays by Aeschylus
Aeschylus

Aeschylus was an Ancient Greece playwright. He is often recognized as the father or the founder of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedy whose Play survive extant, the others being Sophocles and Euripides....
, collectively known as Achilleis
Achilles (play)

Achilleis is the convenient modern designation of a trilogy of plays written by the tragedy Aeschylus. It follows the Greek hero Achilles during the Trojan War, wherein he defeats Hector and eventually gets killed by Paris when an arrow punctures his heel....
. The other plays in the trilogy are Nereids
Nereids

In Greek mythology, the Nereids are sea nymphs, the fifty daughters of Nereus and Doris . They often accompany Poseidon and are always friendly and helpful towards sailors fighting perilous storms....
 and Phrygians. See Achilles (play)
Achilles (play)

Achilleis is the convenient modern designation of a trilogy of plays written by the tragedy Aeschylus. It follows the Greek hero Achilles during the Trojan War, wherein he defeats Hector and eventually gets killed by Paris when an arrow punctures his heel....
 for more.

In popular culture

Many novels, television shows, and comic books that take terminology from myths have used the name myrmidon for fictional organizations, while others, set in ancient Greece, feature versions of the original myrmidons in their story.

The term also enjoys widespread use in computer
Computer Games

"Computer Games" is a single by New Zealand group, Mi-Sex released in 1981 . It was the single that launched the band, and was hugely popular, particularly in Australia and New Zealand....
 and video games, especially those in the role-playing game
Role-playing game

A role-playing game is a game in which the participants assume the roles of fictional characters. Participants determine the actions of their characters based on their characterization, and the actions succeed or fail according to a role-playing game system of rules and guidelines....
 genre. It is commonly chosen as a title for character class
Character class

In role-playing games, a common method of arbitrating the capabilities of different fictional characters is to assign each one to a character class....
es and enemies, or sometimes as the name for a piece of equipment or vehicle within a game.

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