Mélophores
The Melophores (from ancient Greek / hoi mélophoroi, literally “the apple bearers”), also called the Immortals, are a group of 10,000 spearmen who constitute the personal guard of the High King of Persia.
According to Xenophon (Cyropedia, VII, 5, 66-68), the body is created by Cyrus the Elder, who considers the door guards insufficient to guarantee his safety and tranquility:
"He wondered which of the other men he could best trust to guard his palace. However, as he knew that the Persians who remained in the country had difficulty in living because of their poverty and that they led a very difficult existence, both because of the harshness of the soil and because they worked with their hands, he believed that they would be the most disposed to be satisfied with the regime of his court. He therefore took among them ten thousand satellites, who, encamped around the palace, guarded him day and night, when he was present, and who accompanied him in his excursions, ranged on each side of his person. »
The Melophores are also in charge of the protection of the royal tent, when the Great King moves. They fight around him (Arrian, III, 13, 1):thus, with the Parents, they protect the retreat of Darius III at the battle of Gaugamela (331 BC).
Their name comes from the apple (according to Athenaeus, XII, 514b) or the pomegranate (according to Xenophon, VII, 41, 83) which adorns the shaft of their spear, instead of sauroteras (points). A thousand Melophores, commanded by the chiliarch, carry a golden apple, while the other 9000 carry silver apples. According to Heraclides of Cyme, these Thousand are chosen of noble (aristindên) and Persian birth.
Xenophon (ibid.) explains their other name of "Immortals" by the fact that "if any of them should fail through death or illness, another was elected in his place, and because they were never more or less than ten thousand. This notion of immortality is well known in the ancient Mediterranean - this is for example the case of the "immortal" herds in the "iron herd" contract (any dead or lost animal is replaced by the beneficiary of the lease, the number of heads remaining constant) or even doves carrying ambrosia to the gods in Homer (Odyssey, XII, 64-65). This is still the case with the “Immortals” of the French Academy[3].
The Melophores impressed Greek authors with their luxury:Herodotus notes that they “surpassed all other troupes in their magnificence” and that they “shone by the multitude of gold ornaments with which they were decorated. Quinte-Curce (III, 3, 13) also remarks that “it was they above all that a luxury of unheard-of opulence made them more imposing; theirs are the gold necklaces, theirs the robes brocaded with gold, and the tunics with sleeves, also adorned with gems. »
Aelian specifies that they wear “purple and apple-yellow” dresses (History varied, IX, 3). Sensitive to their impressive appearance, Alexander the Great kept the Melophores and used them in his service after he put an end to the reign of the Achaemenids.
It is likely that the spearmen and archers represented on the enamelled brickwork of the Apadana (audience hall) of the palace of Darius I at Susa are Melophores.