Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Myrmidons!

This is the first of an occasional succint series about some photographs from Flickr that I have saved as 'favorites'.

This photo is labelled "Peruvian anti-riot police" by the photographer. The tight composition caught my eye, along with the armor. A good thing to have when people are throwing bottles and bricks your way.It takes eight pounds of pressure per square inch to break human bone. So yes to armor, however ant-like. They remind me of ant-men. Myrmidons: created from ants by Zeus. Loyal. Swarming. Lots of them.

Another aspect of the photo appealed to me. I like groups; working with and achieving goals with a group. O I can go off and read a book all 'on my oddy-knocky', but it is the group, whether it be a tank crew, library staff, or model group that gets things done.

Then, as always, there is the word: Myrmidons. The tribe Achilles led. Created by Zeus from ants, wrote Ovid. Later, it came to mean 'robot-like'; then, 'mindless ruffians'. Shakespeare did not think much of them. I prefer the ant-men etymology: my fascination with Formicidae goes back a long way. That is another story.

8 comments:

The Crow said...

Ants taste very good, especially when you are five years old and don't know any better.

I know better than to eat them now.

:)

Relucent Reader said...

Thank you for your comment, Crow.
Hahaha, trouble is, one has to eat lots and lots of 'em.
I was about five for my first encounter with them: I unwittingly sat on a red ant nest... luckily, we were North enough they could not have been Fire Ants.

Roderick Robinson said...

Having enlarged the pic I discovered that six-packs had been moulded into the stomach area of the plastic carapaces. Suggesting that under all that protection there may be nothing more than (as Falstaff says) "a man made after supper of a cheese-paring. ... for all the world like a forked radish, with a head fantastically carved..." Mind you, I wouldn't be inclined to try and prove this thesis.

Roderick Robinson said...

Having enlarged the pic I discovered that six-packs had been moulded into the stomach area of the plastic carapaces. Suggesting that under all that protection there may be nothing more than (as Falstaff says) "a man made after supper of a cheese-paring. ... for all the world like a forked radish, with a head fantastically carved..." Mind you, I wouldn't be inclined to try and prove this thesis.

Roderick Robinson said...

Having enlarged the pic I discovered that six-packs had been moulded into the stomach area of the plastic carapaces. Suggesting that under all that protection there may be nothing more than (as Falstaff says) "a man made after supper of a cheese-paring. ... for all the world like a forked radish, with a head fantastically carved..." Mind you, I wouldn't be inclined to try and prove this thesis.

Roderick Robinson said...

Sorry about the triplication - a reversion to life in the RAF.

Relucent Reader said...

Thank you for your comment(s), BB, nice to see the RAF has a Department of Redundancy Department still....
Whew, talk about lines converging: yesterday I was looking for a Falstaff quote,or one I thought was a line of Falstaff's ...the line about daice being bait for pike...did not have access to a concordance or a decent quote book, and the web (ever so wide, but not deep) was useless.
On a boring note, I go in tomorrow for a catheterization; a simple oft-repeated procedure. I have had it done so often they have put a wee hatch over the entry point ;). At least we will know if it is a blockage;if so I presume they will be placing a stent.

Roderick Robinson said...

Best of luck. As a gesture of solidarity, may I offer you this post made on May 21 last year. Sorry I'm unable to create a direct link for you.

http://bbworkswell.blogspot.com/2008/05/journey-to-middle-of-patient.html