InGreek andRoman mythology,Myrmex^[a] (Ancient Greek:Μύρμηξ,romanized: Múrmēx,lit. 'ant'^[1]) is a young maiden who became a favourite of the goddessAthena. Her story survives in the works of fifth-century AD Latin grammarianMaurus Servius Honoratus.

The ancient Greek nounμύρμηξ means 'ant'^[1] and is derived from theProto-Indo-European root*morwi- which means the same thing.^[2]

Myrmex was anAttican girl famed for her cleverness and her chastity, and for this reason she was loved byAthena, the virgin goddess of wisdom and patron-goddess of Attica.^[3]

WhenDemeter 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.^[4] 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.^[5] Athena, heartbroken by the girl's betrayal, hated Myrmex as she had once loved her, and turned her into anant, doomed to only be able to steal crops.^[6][7]

Zeus eventually felt pity for her, so he honoured the ant, and thus when the island ofAegina fell in need to be repopulated, he created a new race of men called theMyrmidons out of ants that he transformed into humans.^[8][9]

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.^[10] Meanwhile Athena's worship inBoeotia andThessaly connected her to the plough and corn.^[10]

Due to the language used about Athena loving Myrmex, some have taken it to mean that the myth has homosexual undertones.^[6][11]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.^[12]

• Arachne
• Medusa
• Metamorphoses in Greek mythology
• Myrmidons, ants who became people

• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010). Lucien van Beek (ed.).Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series. Vol. ΙΙ. Leiden, the Netherlands:Brill Publications.ISBN 978-90-04-17419-1.
• Bell, Robert E. (1991).Women of Classical Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary.ABC-Clio.ISBN 9780874365818.
• Forbes Irving, Paul M. C. (1990).Metamorphosis in Greek Myths.Clarendon Press.ISBN 0-19-814730-9.
• Maurus Servius Honoratus.In Vergilii carmina comentarii. Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii carmina commentarii; recensuerunt Georgius Thilo et Hermannus Hagen. Georgius Thilo. Leipzig. B. G. Teubner. 1881.Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Liddell, Henry George;Scott, Robert (1940).A Greek-English Lexicon, revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie. Oxford:Clarendon Press.Online version at Perseus.tufts project.
• Monaghan, Patricia (December 18, 2009).Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines: Volume 1.ABC-Clio.ISBN 978-0-313-34989-8.
• Smith, William (1873).A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.London: John Murray: Spottiswoode and Co.Online version at the Perseus.tufts Project.
• Stanley, Autumn (1995).Mothers and Daughters of Invention: Notes for a Revised History of Technology.New Brunswick, New Jersey:Rutgers University Press.ISBN 0-8135-2197-1.
• Stassinopoulos, Agapi (October 13, 1999).Conversations With the Goddesses. New York, USA: Harry N. Abrams.ISBN 9781556709425.

• Deeds of Athena
• Metamorphoses into arthropods in Greek mythology
• Mythological people from Attica
• Women in Greek mythology
• LGBTQ themes in Greek mythology
• Deeds of Zeus
• Hubris myths

• Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text
• CS1 Greek-language sources (el)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata