i’ve always been interested in ancient Greek mythology, but i’ve never actually read any of it. mostly because stories such as The Odyssey are just too much for me to handle right now. it’s a secret shame of mine, but i just can’t handle reading anything quite that…grown up. my brain starts to smoke. recently, i sneaked into my son’s book collection and stole The Lightening Theif, by Rick Riordan. it’s the story about modern children who are born of mortals and the Greek gods. i won’t spoil it or bore you by giving a full synopsis… but the book was actually pretty good. it is YA fiction, so it took me about 4 hours flat to blow through it, but i still enjoyed those four hours. it also sparked an interest in learning more about Greek Mythology.
a few years ago, i used to play a video game called Age of Mythology, and it included all the Mythological Heros, Creatures, Gods, and Titans. it was way cool. seeing all those characters re-appear in books (and in WW) has me curious as to what their stories are. maybe one of these days my brain will be quiet enough, the house will be calm enough, and i will have enough concentration that i’ll be able to sit down and read Homer’s Odyssey.
if i had a Myrmidon, i’d put them on toy sanitizing, bathroom cleaning, and floor scrubbing duty… it would probably suit classic fairy tales, and be called a Brownie instead. what would your Myrmidon do?
myrmidon • \MER-muh-dahn\
• noun
- : a loyal follower; especially : a subordinate who executes orders unquestioningly or unscrupulously
Example Sentence:
The boss was more likely to offer promotions to her myrmidons than to those workers who occasionally questioned her tactics or proposed alternate solutions.
Did you know?
The Myrmidons, legendary inhabitants of Thessaly in Greece, were known for their fierce devotion to their king, Achilles, who led them in the Trojan War. “Myrmex” means “ant” in Greek, an image that evokes small and insignificant workers mindlessly fulfilling their duty. Whether the original Myrmidons were given their name for that reason is open to question. The “ant” association is strong, however. Some say the name is from a legendary ancestor who once had the form of an ant; others say the Myrmidons were actually transformed from ants. In any case, since the 1400s, we’ve employed “myrmidon” in its not-always-complimentary, ant-evoking, figurative sense.