Hermione- Greek FigureMortal"Princess of Sparta"

The Conflicting Betrothal

Hermione was the only daughter of King Menelaus of Sparta and Helen. She was still a young child when Paris took her mother to Troy, and she was raised in Sparta during the ten long years of war and her father's slow return. Before the war, her grandfather Tyndareus had promised her to Orestes, son of Agamemnon. But during the fighting, Menelaus promised her instead to Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, as reward for his valor at Troy. The two promises were bound to collide. In the Odyssey, when Telemachus visits Sparta seeking news of his father, Hermione is being sent away to wed Neoptolemus, departing her childhood home.

After Troy's fall, Neoptolemus claimed Hermione and brought her to his kingdom in Phthia. The marriage proved unhappy. Hermione bore no children, while Neoptolemus's Trojan captive Andromache — Hector's widow — gave him a son, Molossus.

Jealousy and Escape

Convinced that Andromache had used sorcery to make her barren, Hermione conspired with her father Menelaus to kill Andromache and her child during Neoptolemus's absence. The aged Peleus, Neoptolemus's grandfather, arrived in time to save them, confronting Hermione and Menelaus and shaming them into retreat.

Hermione panicked, fearing Neoptolemus's wrath upon his return. At this desperate moment, Orestes appeared. He had never abandoned his claim to Hermione and had already arranged for Neoptolemus to be killed at Delphi. According to Pindar, Neoptolemus quarreled with Apollo's priests over sacrificial portions and was slain in the ensuing fight, while Euripides portrays Orestes as the direct orchestrator, sending armed men to ambush Neoptolemus while he prayed at the altar. With Neoptolemus dead, Orestes married Hermione, fulfilling the original betrothal by Tyndareus and joining the royal houses of Mycenae and Sparta. Their son Tisamenus would rule as the last of the Pelopid kings.