Warrior Ants: Elite Troops in Homer
and The Mythology of the Myrmidons

Matthew A. Sears (Cornell University)

Questions concerning the nature of infantry battle as described by Homer have long sparked debate among scholars.  In recent years two main schools of reconstruction have emerged: the one, following upon the influential 1977 work of Joachim Latacz and largely supported by W. K. Pritchett, arguing that Iliadic battle consisted primarily of dense phalanx formations; with the other, championed by Hans van Wees, insisting on the predominance of loose and fluid infantry groups facilitating the high level of battlefield mobility enjoyed by several of Homer’s heroes. 

In the face of such disparate views, each one offering substantial evidence from the Homeric poems, I offer a solution.  First of all, Homeric infantry contingents, made up of several nationalities under many different commanders, would necessarily have employed variegated rather than uniform tactics.  Therefore, the majority of infantry units in the Iliad could have fought in loose and relatively undisciplined formations while others, perhaps highly trained and more martially skilled, employed phalanx-style tactics.  I submit that the Myrmidons under Achilles, whom Barry Strauss has recently presented as elite troops, as well as the troops under Telemonian Ajax, represent these highly skilled crack soldiers.  Not surprisingly, these are the two forces most utilized by scholars favoring a phalanx reconstruction,

Evidence for this idea abounds in Homer, and Late Bronze Age parallels are readily available to corroborate the existence of similar elite bands during the traditional time of the Trojan War, all of which I shall demonstrate in a forthcoming article.   For this conference I will focus on the mythology which lies behind the Myrmidons, particularly the story of their origin which can be traced back as far as Hesiod.  This mythology suggests that the Myrmidons were once ants, transformed by Zeus into men on the island of Aegina.  These men are usually described as similar in age and courage, and often appear as fully armed warriors.  The name Myrmidons, or “Ant People,” may be further evidence of their martial prowess, as a considerable body of biological literature confirms that ants themselves actually engage in warfare.  Finally, the origin myth of the Myrmidons also provides a connection between the forces of Achilles and Ajax, as it was their grandfather Aeacus who was present at the genesis of this warrior troop.  Just as Peleus was accompanied by Myrmidons when he left Aegina and bequeathed this force to his son, so also it is likely that Telemon led away some Myrmidons of his own, the command of whom he gave to Ajax.  Both the similarity and the apparent elite quality of the forces under Achilles and Ajax at Troy can thus be explained.