View source for Myrmidons

== Medieval Myrmidons ==
Achilles was described by [[Leo the Deacon]] (born ca. 950) not as [[Hellenes|Hellene]], but as [[Scythians|Scythian]], while according to the Byzantine author [[John Malalas]] (c. 491–578), his army was made up of a tribe previously known as Myrmidons and "known now as [[Bulgars]]".<ref name=Ekon>{{cite book|last1=Ekonomou|first1=Andrew|title=Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes|date=2007|publisher=Lexington Books|location=UK|page=123|isbn=9780739119778|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zomZk6DbFTIC&q=john+malalas+myrmidons+achilles&pg=PA123|access-date=14 September 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Jeffreys|first1=Elizabeth|last2=Croke|first2=Brian|title=Studies in John Malalas|year=1990|location=Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, Department of Modern Greek, University of Sydney|page=206|isbn=9780959362657|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p55mAAAAMAAJ&q=john+malalas+myrmidons+achilles|access-date=14 September 2015}}</ref> The 12th-century Byzantine poet [[John Tzetzes]] also identified the Myrmidons with the Bulgars, whom he also identified with the [[Paeonia (kingdom)|Paeonia]]ns, although the latter may be intended in a purely geographical sense.<ref name=Panov>{{citation |author=Mitko B. Panov |title=The Blinded State: Historiographic Debates about Samuel Cometopoulos and His State (10th–11th Century) |publisher=Brill |year=2019}}, p. 109.</ref><ref>{{citation |author=Anthony Kaldellis |title=Byzantine Readings of Ancient Historians |year=2015 |publisher=Routledge}}, p. 79.</ref> In the 11th century, [[Michael Attaleiates]] called the [[Kievan Rus'|Rus']] Myrmidons, but this usage did not catch on.<ref name=Kald>{{citation |author=Anthony Kaldellis |title=Ethnography After Antiquity |year=2013 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press}}, p. 112.</ref>

According to Byzantine history scholar [[Andrew J. Ekonomou]], these represent intentional distortions designed to "minimize the valor of pagan heroes, and eventually to extinguish their memory altogether".<ref name=Ekon/> Anthony Kaldellis, on the other hand, argues that such use of classical ethnonyms for modern peoples "do not really fall under the category of distortion at all".<ref name=Kald/>