Myrmidons

Myrmidons, in Greek mythology, inhabitants of the island of Aegina in the Saronic Gulf, the followers of Achilles during the Trojan War. During the reign of Achilles' grandfather Aeacus, Hera, the wife of Zeus, sent a plague that destroyed the island's inhabitants, because Zeus loved Aegina, the maiden after whom the island was named. Aeacus, in despair, prayed to Zeus; seeing a troop of ants as he did so, he asked that they be transformed into people numerous enough to fill his empty city. Zeus answered his prayer in this manner, and because Aegina was repopulated from an anthill, its people became known as Myrmidons, from the Greek word meaning “ants” (myrmêkes).