Sunday Rest: Word Not To Use Today: myrmidon.

Myrmidons, eh? They sound like space invaders - which, fair enough, is pretty close to what they are.

There are two stories about where the beginnings of the myrmidons. They're either the descendants of Myrmidon, King of Phthia (do have fun pronouncing that), who was the offspring of Queen Eurymedusa and Zeus (who may have been disguised, bizarrely, as an ant).


Or else the myrmidons were turned into humans from ants when King Aeacus of Aegina asked Zeus to repopulate his kingdom after a plague.







The myrmidons were a race of very brave and skilled fighters who in the Iliad are commanded by Achilles.

Nowadays the word has come to mean someone mindlessly obedient or slavish. And seldom, as they say, in a good way.

One to avoid unless you want to sound like a blocked bagpipe.

Word Not To Use Today: myrmidon. This word is from the Greek word myrmēx, which means ant.