Brewer's: Myrmidons of the Law

Bailiffs, sheriffs' officers, and other law menials. Any rough fellow employed to annoy another is the employer's myrmidon.

The Myrmidons were a people of Thessaly who followed Achilles to the siege of Troy, and were distinguished for their savage brutality, rude behaviour, and thirst for rapine.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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