MYRMIDONS

Above: This is a detail from The Death of Achilles by Peter Paul Rubens (1577—1640).The man trying to hold up the mortally wounded hero is one of his faithful Myrmidons.

Which killed almost all of the island’s animals and people. She also sent a devastating drought, which made it impossible for crops to grow. Aeacus noticed a column of ants gathering grain on an oak tree and prayed that he might have as many people as there were ants. His wish was granted by Zeus. That night Aeacus had a dream in which the ants turned into people. When he woke up, he found one of his sons, Telamon, running to tell him that the island was populated again with large numbers of inhabitants. Aeacus named them Myrmidons with an intentional reference to the word for “ant.” The people of the island were indeed thrifty, hardworking, and resolute in achieving their goals and in holding on to what they had achieved. Appropriately for an island people, the Myrmidons were reputedly the first to build seagoing ships and to equip them with sails.

Aeacus married twice. By his first wife, a princess from Megara, a powerful city not too far away on mainland Greece, Aeacus had two children, Telamon and Peleus.

His second marriage, to a sea nymph, produced one son, Phocus. Telamon and Peleus inevitably became jealous of their half brother and feared that he rather than they would inherit their father’s kingdom. This sibling rivalry ended when Phocus was killed. In some versions his death was murder—Telamon stabbed Phocus with a spear while they were out hunting, and Peleus then finished him off with an ax. In others Phocus was killed accidentally when he was hit by a discus thrown by Telamon. In both versions, Telamon and Peleus concealed the body.