Myrmidons

The Myrmidons are the followers of Achilles. Homer's catalogue of ships lists the men from Phthia and Hellas, the land of fair women, and says they were called Myrmidons, Hellenes and Achaeans. Achilles was captain of their fifty ships (Iliad 2.681-694). The catalogue adds that he lay idle among the ships in anger over Briseis, and that his men therefore did not fight. Achilles is the only leader Homer names for them at that point, and the troop has no separate story apart from his.

The Iliad shows how the troop was built. When Achilles finally lets his men go to battle, he goes through the huts and has all the Myrmidons put on their armor. Homer says they rushed out like wolves. He divides them into five companies and names a leader for each: Menesthius, Eudorus, Peisander, Phoenix and Alcimedon (Iliad 16.155-199). The Myrmidons are therefore an organised army with its own captains, not a crowd gathered round one hero.

Achilles's speech to them recalls the time of his anger. He tells them not to forget the threats they made beside the ships against the Trojans, when they blamed him for keeping them from the fight (Iliad 16.200-209). Patroclus and Automedon lead the front ranks as the men close up shield to shield. Apollodorus's Epitome gives the sequence in brief. Achilles sends out Patroclus with the Myrmidons, arms him with his own arms and gives him the horses (Epitome 4.6). The Trojans take the armor for Achilles and flee.

The sources checked here do not state in their account of Troy why the people are named Myrmidons. Apollodorus tells a related tale of Aeacus, the father of Peleus and grandfather of Achilles. Aeacus was alone on the island of Aegina, and Zeus made the ants into men for him (Library 3.12.6). That passage does not use the name Myrmidons. Peleus is the connection between that story and Achilles, since Aeacus is his father (Library 3.12.6).

The Myrmidons outlive Achilles. In the Odyssey, Nestor tells Telemachus that the Myrmidons came home safely, and that the famous son of Achilles led them (Odyssey 3.188-189). That son is Neoptolemus. Homer says nothing in these lines about their later history. The troop belongs to the wider company of the Greek heroes, where figures are often known through the group they lead or the family they join.