Aeacus

A plague struck Aegina and blew for four months. Crops and pastures dried up, and famine followed. Thirst afflicted the islanders most severely. When the wine ran out, they crawled to the nearest streams and died after drinking the poisonous water. Appeals to Zeus brought no relief. The starving people and their sacrificial animals fell dead before his altars, until hardly any warm-blooded creature remained alive.

Aeacus continued to pray. He was the son of Zeus and Aegina, the woman after whom the island was named. One day, thunder and lightning answered his prayers. Taking this as a favourable sign, Aeacus asked Zeus to repopulate the empty land with as many subjects as there were ants carrying grains of corn up a nearby oak. The tree had grown from an acorn brought from Dodona and was sacred to Zeus. At Aeacus’s request, it trembled, although no wind moved its branches. Aeacus was afraid, but stayed. He kissed the tree trunk and the earth beneath it repeatedly.

That night, Aeacus dreamed that he saw a shower of ants. Zeus then changed the ants into human beings. The new people became Aeacus’s subjects and were called the Myrmidons. They were regarded as industrious because of their origin, and also as brave. Aeacus later ruled Aegina and was honoured for his piety. The Myrmidons became his people and, in later generations, followed Achilles, Aeacus’s grandson, to the Trojan War, where they fought beside Achilles and Patroclus.

Some accounts connect the name with King Myrmidon, whose daughter Eurymedusa was seduced by Zeus in the form of an ant. Others derive it from Myrmex, a companion of Athene who claimed credit for the invention of the plough and was changed into an ant as punishment. Another account says that the Aeginetans called themselves Myrmidons because they had to clear stones from the soil before they could cultivate it.