Illustration from ” History of Darius the Great” (1850), showing gold-digging ants chasing people and horses

The Legend of the Ferocious Gold-Digging Ants

Welcome on this Weird Wednesday! Today we’re following an old Roman legend of mysterious insects who unearth gold—but watch out, they’re fierce in defending it! Sound fun? Then let’s take our chances and see if we get rich.

The Roman historian Herodotus is one source of the legend, which was widespread in the ancient world. In Herodotus’s Histories, published around 440 BC, he tells of strange creatures in the Indian parts of Persia, what today is Pakistan. These animals were smaller than a dog, but larger than a fox, furry, and lived in tunnels beneath the ground in an area saturated with gold dust. When the creatures dug their burrows, gold dust was scattered across the surface. Humans had to be careful in collecting this gold, though, because the large, furry ants would chase them away with great violence.

Now, in this day and age, we are well aware that no such “ants” exist. Ants do not have fur, they are not larger than foxes, and they don’t dig up gold (although occasionally termites do). So is this just another ancient legend? Or could the story describe a real creature?

Modern analysis actually has a candidate that matches in all but name and behavior: the marmot. Marmots are a type of ground squirrel, and a Himalayan version exists in modern-day Pakistan. Marmots are furry, rather large for squirrels, and dig tunnels under the ground. Where the ground contains gold dust, as in the Deosai Plateau: yes, they do in fact dig up gold, which people can collect.

What marmots don’t do is ferociously chase treasure-seeking humans, potentially harming them if their camels are not fast enough in the escape. But that addition could just be good storytelling.

So if the gold-digging creatures are marmots, why on earth did Herodotus call them “ants”? Well, it’s thought that because Herodotus didn’t speak much Persian, he confused the Persian word for “marmot” with that for “mountain ant”.

Now, the story on its own, of furry creatures who dig gold and chase people who steal it, would make for a great legend. But the fact that the creatures are known as “ants” just makes the story even better. We are led to imagine huge furry insects in great burrows beneath the ground, mining for gold and violently defending it with their many legs and sharp jaws.

And here on Weird Wednesday, as we are storytellers ourselves, we like the legend better than the truth.

So here are some legendary writing prompts!

• Underground society. So why do the ants defend the gold so fiercely? Well, perhaps they have a use for it. You could write a story where the ants have an advanced society beneath the ground, and use the same substances for money that humans do: pretty rocks and shiny metal. Is their civilization a secret from humans? Or might there be trading opportunities? Just how advanced is the ant society?

Regular-sized ants

• Miner’s best friend. Humans often use animals for assistance, including horses, oxen, dogs, and bees. You could write a story where humans breed a type of ant which can mine gold in other biomes—maybe even on other planets. Do the ants still have to live in a large social grouping or can you just have one or two? Do they remain violent and dangerous or are they domesticated? Are they cute enough to keep as pets?

• Cryptid country. What would happen if next year, someone discovered the marmot theory was wrong? Maybe there really are giant, furry, gold-digging ants living in one tiny remote area, or perhaps represented in the fossil record. You could write the story from the perspective of a scientist, cryptozoologist, historian, or CEO of a mining company.

• Ancient aliens. Because we can never leave out the alien angle! So what if at some point in the distant past, aliens visited Earth and accidentally introduced an invasive species: large, furry, gold-digging ants. Perhaps the aliens kept them as pets, or maybe they were just stowaways on the space ship. And then the aliens had to remove these animals without letting humans catch on. Maybe they caught them all and spirited them away, leaving just a legend in their wake. Or maybe they didn’t, and somewhere out there, there’s still a rogue population of outer space gold-digging ants just beneath our feet.

Thanks for spending your Weird Wednesday here. I hope the rest of your day is legendary!

Sources & further reading:

Herodotus on the gold-digging “ants”: Livius.org 

Life on Plateau: Gold-diggers on the plateau: China Global Television Network

Gold-digging ant: Wikipedia