| Hermione | |
|---|---|
Queen ofSparta | |
 | |
| Abode | Sparta |
| Genealogy | |
| Parents | Menelaus andHelen |
| Siblings | Nicostratus,Pleisthenes,Aganus,Corythus,Idaeus,Bunomus,Helen the Younger |
| Consort | Neoptolemus,Orestes |
| Offspring | Tisamenus |
InGreek mythology,Hermione (/hɜːrˈmaɪ.əni/;[1]Ancient Greek:Ἑρμιόνη,romanized: Hermiónē[hermi.ónɛː]) was the daughter ofMenelaus, king ofSparta, and his wife,Helen of Troy.[2] Prior to theTrojan War, Hermione had been betrothed byTyndareus, her grandfather,[3] to her cousinOrestes, son of her uncle,Agamemnon. According to Apollodorus, she was nine years old when her mother eloped withParis, son of the Trojan kingPriam.[4]
During the war, Menelaus promised her toAchilles' son,Neoptolemus.[5] After the war ended, he sent Hermione away to the city ofPhthia (the home of Peleus and Achilles), where Neoptolemus was staying. The two were married, yet, soon afterwards, Neoptolemus traveled toDelphi in order to exact vengeance againstApollo for having caused his father's death, only to be killed there. With Neoptolemus dead, Hermione was free to marry Orestes, with whom she had a son,Tisamenus.
Ancient poets disagree over whether Menelaus was involved in both betrothals.Euripides has Orestes say:
Because, in fact, you were rightfully mine, from a long time ago. Your father has promised you to me before he left for Troy but then, the liar that he is, when he got to Troy, he offered you to Neoptolemos, your present husband, if he, in return captured the city.
— Andromache 969, translation by George Theodoridis
Ovid, on the contrary, says that Menelaus did not even know of the promise made by Tyndareus:
(Hermione) "Tyndareus gave me to you, he, my ancestor, heavy with experience,
and years: the grandfather decided for the grand-child.
But Menelaus, my father, made a promise of me, unaware of this act."
According to theOdyssey, it was ten years after the end of the Trojan War that Hermione was married to Neoptolemus: whenTelemachus, son ofOdysseus, visited Menelaus inSparta, he found him
giving a marriage feast to his many kinsfolk for his noble son and daughter within his house. His daughter he was sending to the son of Achilles, breaker of the ranks of men, for in the land of Troy he first had promised and pledged that he would give her, and now the gods were bringing their marriage to pass.
— Odyssey IV, 3–7, translation by A. T. Murray (Loeb edition)
Shortly after settling into the domestic life, conflict arose between Hermione andAndromache (widow ofHector, prince of Troy and elder brother ofParis), the concubine Neoptolemus had obtained as a prize after the sack ofTroy. Hermione blamed Andromache for her inability to become pregnant, claiming that she was casting spells on her to keep her barren. She asked her father to kill Andromache and her son while Neoptolemus was away atDelphi, but they are saved by the intervention ofPeleus.[7]
Neoptolemus did not return from Delphi. Instead, Hermione's cousin Orestes arrived to report that Neoptolemus had been killed. Reasons for his death vary. In some accounts, he started an altercation at theTemple of Apollo and was killed by a priest, the temple servants, or by the god himself. In other accounts, Orestes found him in Delphi and killed him.[8] Whatever the cause, after Neoptolemus' death, Orestes took Hermione back to Mycenae to fulfill the original promise that Hermione would be his bride.
Hermione and Orestes were married, and she gave birth to his heirTisamenus. It is said that Orestes also married his half-sisterErigone, daughter of Clytemnestra andAegisthus, though it is not clear if this happened after Hermione's death or if her marriage to Orestes ended for some other reason.[9]
Hermione eventually joined her parents[10] inElysium. Ascholiast for Nemean X says that, according toIbycus, Hermione marriedDiomedes after his apotheosis and that he now lives with her uncles, theDioscuri, as an immortal god.[11] He is elsewhere said to reside on theIsles of the Blessed, presumably with Hermione herself.[12]
Media related toHermione at Wikimedia Commons
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