Chapter Hermesind to Hero of H by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Hermesind to Hero

Hermesind, daughter of Pelayo and Gaudiosa. She was plighted to Alphonso, son of lord Pedro of Cantabria. Both Alphonso and Hermesind at death were buried in the cave of St. Antony, in Covadonga.

Beauty and grace and innocence in her
In heavenly union shone. One who had held
The faith of elder Greece would sure have thought
She was some glorious nymph of seed divine,
Oread or Dryad…yea, she seemed
Angel or soul beatified, from realms
Of bliss…to earth re-sent.
   —Southey: Roderick, etc., xvi.(1814).

Hermia, daughter of Egeus of Athens, and promised by him in marriage to Demetrius.—Shakespeare: Midsummer Night’s Dream (1592).

For the tale, see Demetrius.

Hermion, the young wife of Damon “the Pythagorean” and senator of Syracuse.—Banim: Damon and Pythias (1825).

Hermionê , only daughter of Menelaos and Helen. She became the wife of Py rrhos or Neoptolêmos, son of Achillês; but Orestês assassinated Pyrrhos and married Hermionê, who had been already betrothed to him.

In English, generally called Hermione, accented on the i.

Hermione , or Ha rmonea, wife of Cadmus. Leaving Thebes, Cadmus and his wife went to Illyria, and were both changed into serpents for having killed a serpent sacred to Mars.—Ovid: Metamorphoses, iv.590, etc.

Never since of serpent-kind
Lovelier, not those that in Illyria [were] changed—
Hermionê and Cadmus.
   —Milton: Paradise Lost, ix. 505, etc.(1665).

(Here Hermione should be Harmonia. Hermione was the wife of Pyrrhus (Neoptolemus.) See below.)

Hermione , wife of Leontês king of Sicily. The king, being jealous, sent her to prison, where she g ave birth to a daughter, who, at the king’s command, was to be placed on a desert shore and left to perish. The child was driven by a storm to the “coast” of Bohemia, and brought up by a shepherd who ca lled her Perdita. Florizel, the son of Polixenês king of Bohemia, fell in love with her, and they fled to Sicily to escape the vengeance of the angry king. Being introduced to Leontês, it was soon discovered that Perdita was his lost daughter, and Polixenês gladly consented to the union he had before objected to. Paulina (a lady about the court) now asked the royal party to her house to inspect a statue of Hermionê, which turned out to be the living queen herself.—Shakespeare: The Winter’s Tale (1594).

Shakespeare and Scott, like Milton, always throw the accent on the second syllable, Her-mi-o-ne.

Hermionê , onl y daughter of Helen and Meneläos king of Sparta. She was betrothed to Orestêes, but, after the fall of Troy, was promised by her father in mar riag e to Pyrrhus king of Epirus. Orestêes madly loved her, but Hermionêe as madly loved Pyrrhus. When Pyrr hus fixed his affections on Andromachêe (widow of Hector, and his captive), the pride and jealousy of Hermionêe were roused. At this crisis, an embassy led by Orestêes arrived at the court of Pyrrhus, to demand the death of Astyanax, the son of Andromachêe and Hector, lest when he grew to manhood he might seek to avenge his father’s death. Pyrrhus declined to give up the boy, and married Andromachêe. The passion of Hermionêe was now goaded to madness; and when she heard that the Greek ambassadors had fallen on Pyrrhus and murdered him, she stabbed herself and died.—Ambrose Philips: The Distressed Mother (1712)

(This was a famous part with Mrs. Porter (*-1762), and with Miss Young better known as Mrs. Pope, 1740–1797.)

Hermionêe , daughter of Dannischemend the Persian sorcerer, mentioned in Donnerhugel’s narrative.—Sir W. Scott: Anne of Geierstein (time, Edward IV.).