Hermione (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Hermione (Greek: Ἑρμιόνη,Georg Autenrieth, A Homeric Dictionary, on Perseus project; ˌhɛɾmɪɔːneɪ) was the only daughter of Menelaus and Helen. She had three younger brothers. Hermione was nine when her mother left with Paris, Prince of Troy. While her father was fighting the war at Troy, Hermione lived with her Aunt Clytemnestra in Mycenae. It seems likely that her brothers were with her, though some stories say her youngest brother, Pleisthenes, went with Helen to Troy. While at Mycenae, Hermione presumably would have met her cousins Iphigenia and Electra and their younger brother Orestes.

Prior to the Trojan War, she was betrothed by Tyndareus, her grandfather, to Orestes, her first cousin twice over through Menelaus' brother, Agamemnon and Helen's sister, Clytemnestra. However, on the battlefield during the Trojan War, her father also promised her to Neoptolemus, also known as Pyrrhus, son of Achilles. There is a historical dispute over whether or not such a discrepancy actually occurred, however. Some authors, such as Euripides, have Orestes say:"For you were mine to begin with, and you are married to Neoptolemus only by the baseness of your father. Before he attacked Troy, he gave you to me to be my wife, but later he promised you to your present husband as a...
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