Myrmidons

Ants into Men

 

His realm ravaged by plague, King Aeacus asks the gods to repopulate his land, making his people once again as numerous as a swarm of ants crawling on a nearby tree. The gods take the request literally.

 

Sudden they grew;

Large, and more large they seem'd, as from the ground

Themselves they rais'd, and stood in form erect.

Their slender make, their numerous feet, their hue

Of sable, disappear'd, and all their limbs

An human shape confess'd.

 

The “ant people” became the Myrmidons, legendary as the followers of Achilles and the fiercest warriors in all Greece.