Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and

Roman mythology Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans, and is a form of Roman folklore. "Roman mythology" may also refer to the modern study of these representations, and to th ...

, Myrmex () is a young maiden who became a favourite of the goddess

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarde ...

. Her story survives in the works of fifth-century AD Latin grammarian

Maurus Servius Honoratus Servius, distinguished as Servius the Grammarian ( or ), was a late fourth-century and early fifth-century grammarian. He earned a contemporary reputation as the most learned man of his generation in Italy; he authored a set of commentaries o ...

Etymology

The ancient Greek noun means 'ant' and is derived from the

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...

root '' *morwi-'' which means the same thing.

Mythology

Myrmex was an

Attica Attica (, ''Attikḗ'' (Ancient Greek) or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the entire Athens metropolitan area, which consists of the city of Athens, the capital city, capital of Greece and the core cit ...

n girl famed for her cleverness and her chastity, and for this reason she was loved by

, the virgin goddess of wisdom and patron-goddess of Attica. When

Demeter In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Demeter (; Attic Greek, Attic: ''Dēmḗtēr'' ; Doric Greek, Doric: ''Dāmā́tēr'') is the Twelve Olympians, Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over cro ...

created crops, Athena wished to show the Atticans an effective way of sowing the fields, so she created the plough, with Myrmex by her side. But Myrmex stole some sheaves of wheat, and boastfully claimed that she herself had invented the plough, and that only through 'her' invention could the crops be put to use. Athena, heartbroken by the girl's betrayal, hated Myrmex as she had once loved her, and turned her into an

ant Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...

, doomed to only be able to steal crops.

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

eventually felt pity for her, so he honoured the ant, and thus when the island of

Aegina Aegina (; ; ) is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, from Athens. Tradition derives the name from Aegina (mythology), Aegina, the mother of the mythological hero Aeacus, who was born on the island and became its king. ...

fell in need to be repopulated, he created a new race of men called the

Myrmidons In Greek mythology, the Myrmidons (or Myrmidones; , singular: , ) were an ancient Thessaly, Thessalian tribe. In Homer's ''Iliad'', the Myrmidons are the soldiers commanded by Achilles. Their :wikt:eponym, eponymous ancestor was Myrmidon (hero) ...

out of ants that he transformed into humans.

Servius Servius may refer to: * Servius (praenomen), a personal name during the Roman Republic * Servius the Grammarian (fl. 4th/5th century), Roman Latin grammarian * Servius Asinius Celer (died AD 46), Roman senator * Servius Cornelius Cethegus, Roma ...

, ''Commentary on Virgil's Aeneid'
4.402
/ref>

Interpretation

The story of the transformation of the Myrmidons is older than that of the girl, and it was probably what prompted the invention of Myrmex's myth in the first place. Meanwhile Athena's worship in

Boeotia Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinisation of names, Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia (; modern Greek, modern: ; ancient Greek, ancient: ), is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the modern regions of Greece, region of Central Greece (adm ...

and

Thessaly Thessaly ( ; ; ancient Aeolic Greek#Thessalian, Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic regions of Greece, geographic and modern administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient Thessaly, a ...

connected her to the plough and corn. Due to the language used about Athena loving Myrmex, some have taken it to mean that the myth has homosexual undertones.

Robert Graves Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was an English poet, soldier, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were b ...

theorized that Myrmex could be the name of some ancient Northern Greek mother-goddess who did invent the plough, and archaeology supports a claim for indigenous European invention.

Footnotes

References

Bibliography

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