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Myrmidons

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Also spelled Myrmidons, the Myrmidones ("ant-people") of Greek mythology were initially the inhabitants of the island of Aegina.

When a plague killed all of the human inhabitants of the island, the king of the territory, Aeacus, prayed to his father, Zeus, for a remedy. Zeus responded by transforming the ants of Aegina into a race of people, the Myrmidons.

They later founded a kingdom in Phthia and took part in the Trojan War, fighting on the side of Achilles, the grandson of Aeacus.

The mythic Myrmidons were famous for their blind and remorseless loyalty to their leaders, so that in pre-industrial Europe the word "Myrmidon" carried many of the same connotations that "robot" does today.

In Grant Morrison's The Invisibles, humans who serve the Archons and have given themselves up for bodily modification are also known as Myrmidons.