In Greek mythology, Hermione (;  ) was the daughter of Menelaus, king of Sparta, and his wife, Helen of Troy.Homer, Odyssey, Book 4, ln.
12–14 Prior to the Trojan War, Hermione had been betrothed by Tyndareus, her grandfather,"wise Tyndareus, a man of sober life and many long years gave me to you" — Ovid, Heroides 8.
Hermione's letter to Orestes.
to her cousin Orestes, son of her uncle, Agamemnon; she was just nine years old when Paris, son of the Trojan king Priam, arrived to abduct her mother, Helen.
During the war, Menelaus promised her to Achilles' son, Neoptolemus.Homer, Odyssey, Book 4, ln.
5–7 After the war ended, he sent Hermione away to the city of Phthia (the home of Peleus and Achilles), where Neoptolemus was staying.
The two were married, yet, soon afterwards, Neoptolemus traveled to Delphi in order to exact vengeance against Apollo for having caused his father's death, only to be shot down by the god's arrow.
With Neoptolemus dead, Hermione was free to marry Orestes, after which she bore him a son, Tisamenus.
Sources
Ancient poets disagree over whether Menelaus was involved in both betrothals.
Euripides has Orestes say:
Ovid, on the contrary, says that Menelaus did not even know of the promise made by Tyndareus:
According to the Odyssey, it was ten years after the end of the Trojan War that Hermione was married to Neoptolemus: when Telemachus, son of Odysseus, visited Menelaus in Sparta, he found him
Shortly after settling into the domestic life, conflict arose between Hermione and Andromache (widow of Hector, prince of Troy and elder brother of Paris), the concubine Neoptolemus had obtained as a prize after the sack of Troy.
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 while Neoptolemus was away at war, but when he chose not to go through with the murder, Hermione fled from Epirus with her cousin Orestes.
Hermione and Orestes were married, and she gave birth to his heir Tisamenus.
The myths do not mention Hermione after that, though it is said that Orestes later married his half-sister Erigone, daughter of Clytemnestra and Aigisthus, who was Orestes' second cousin.
In art and literature
Ermione by Gioachino Rossini
Andromaque by Jean Racine
Notes
References
Ἑρμιόνη, Georg Autenrieth, A Homeric Dictionary, on Perseus project
