In Greek mythology, Myrmex[a] (Ancient Greek: Μύρμηξ, romanized: Múrmēx, lit. 'ant'[1]) is a young maiden who became a favourite of the goddess Athena. Her story survives in the works of fifth-century AD Latin grammarian Maurus Servius Honoratus.
The ancient Greek noun μύρμηξ means 'ant'[1] and is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *morwi- which means the same thing.[2]
Myrmex was an Attican girl famed for her cleverness and her chastity, and for this reason she was loved by Athena, the virgin goddess of wisdom.[3]
When Demeter 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, and boastfully claimed that she herself had invented the plough, and that only through 'her' invention the crops could 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, doomed to only be able to steal crops.[4] Zeus felt pity for her, so he honoured the ant, and when Aegina needed to be repopulated, he created a new race of men, the Myrmidons, out of transformed ants.[5][6]
Due to the language used about Athena loving Myrmex, some have taken it to mean that the myth has homosexual undertones.[7] Robert Graves 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.[8]
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