Myrmidons weren't dressed in black. Only their ships were black. Their gear was just like all of the other Achaeans. Their armour and helmets were made from bright shiny bronze.

To adress the topic of instant deaths, Id say its really complex topic.

On one hand severe leg injury clearly incapacitates a man and even lesser wounds can put him out of combat for the period of the batte, while on the other, injury can be hardly noticed outright and the man can die days after the battle.

One more thing to consider, that Ive though about much reading some battle accounts - if the body of men sustaining casualties doesnt break, it seems customary not to leave anyone behind, its hard to tell what it encompasses for specific periods, units and situations, but especially in examples of unbroken infantry, these might carry all their wounded, who show at least some signs of life and maybe even as many dead as they can recollect with them. To be specific, Id cite several possible examples - Marignan, Dreux, Cerisole, Omdurman - in these cases infantry formations were charged by cavalry repeatedly and at least in cases, in which the body of men retreated, casualties produced and defined as number of dead bodies left over after their retreat might be very low despite vivid description of men being wounded on both sides. Omdurman might be the clearest example, most eyewitnesses describe 20-50 men Dervishes left and 21st lancers charge and consequent carbine fire. Certainly, in such a press, men would cut wildly around and most wounds wouldnt have a potential to kill on the spot, yet many might have proven fatal after hours from bleeding out an organ failure, or days, maybe weeks from infection. As this body was later shelled heavily by artillery boats producing casualties of several times the magnitude effortlessly, it would be impossible to assess. In the example of the battle of Dreux, Swiss were repeadly traversed by Huguenot gendarmes, while being shot at, plus had to deal with attacking Landsknechts producing supposedly 300 immediate dead form these combined, yet the actualy and eventual loss might be as high as 2000 from men dying of wounds, or surviving with incapacitating injury.

So to sum up: loosing side, that routs is open to be butchered so any number cited simply doesnt say anything about how quick the death was, while on the other hand, if a body of men sustains great casualties, the immediate effect might be hard to judge from the recount of dead they leave on the spor, their real casualties might be several times higher due to all the not immediately dead, or even most of the dead they can collect being brought away from battle, or from the multitude of surviving with crippling injuries, or dying later from wounds, that seemed light on the spot, While many might survive despite being injures multitude of times without any functional deficit.

So Id say the only statement Im definitely sure of is, that noone knows for sure and one example would not be enough.

A little off-topic,, I personally would really be interested in examples of units sustaining heavy losses without breaking and how they handled their wounded and dead in these examples, if it was more common to leave them be, even injured, or to collect as many dead and wounded as possible and for what reasons. My personal idea is the second option is more propable from examples Ive seen.

On the subject of fighting with adrenaline, Bernal Diaz Del Castillo wrote about a number of times that the Spanish conquistadors found themselves badly outnumbered and had to continue fighting despite most or even all of them being wounded, many multiple times.

For instance describing a battle during the retreat from Mexico City:

"The level ground, however, was uncommonly favorable for the manœuvres of our horse, which every now and then gallopped at full speed in upon the enemy, and then retired, to watch another favorable opportunity. Although both horse and rider were severely wounded, yet they continued to fight most valiantly. It seemed as if we who formed the cavalry had double our usual strength; for, though we were covered with wounds, and each moment received fresh ones, yet we never gave them thought, but kept dashing in upon the foe without intermission."

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32474/32474-h/...ER_CXXVIII



He gives some numbers for one of the first expeditions he was a part of, involving 110 men:

During an early skirmish with the natives 15 spaniards were wounded by arrows, 2 of which later died.

At their next stop they entered a native village and were attacked on all sides, forcing them to fight their way back to the boats. After the fight 57 Spaniards had been left behind and of the survivors "None of us had escaped without two, three, or four wounds. Our captain had as many as twelve, and there was only one single soldier who came off whole." The author himself was wounded three times "one of which was in my left side and very dangerous, the arrow having pierced to the very bone."

They sailed away for a while but were suffering badly due to lack of fresh water, so the 20 men whose wounds had healed best had to go ashore where they had found a stream. The natives attacked them again both on land and in canoes. The attackers were beaten back this time but re-wounded at least 11 more Spaniards, and 1 man went missing.

After arriving back in cuba he writes at out of the 110 original party 70 of them, including the captain, were missing or eventually died of their wounds.