Pronunciation (one more time)/source

[brooksindy]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C6291
From: brooksindy
Subject: Re: Pronunciation (one more time)/source
Reply To: [Yahoo! #6232] Re: Pronunciation (one more time)
Date: 8/8/00 6:02 pm  (ET)

Hermione would be expected, being from the same source (Greek -
specifically, myth/legend), rhyme with "Calliope", which indeed is the
way JKR pronounces it (Q&A shown on CBS: Sunday Morning on 9 July Child:
"Is there a character you based on yourself?" JKR: "Yes, but I am a bit
ashamed to admit it:" (bashful grin): "Hermione". (Audience giggles).

At any rate, Hermione in legend/myth Greek literature was the daughter
of Helen (of Troy) and Menelaus, Helen's Greek husband. When Helen went
to Troy, Menelaus, Agammemnon, & Achilles were all part of the army
that went after her (See _The Iliad_ by some blind guy:-). Hermione
married Achilles. After Achilles' death she married Orestes, the son
of Agammemnon and Clytemnestra (Helen's half-sister)..... at any rate,
there seems to have been a lot more formal education in the UK than in
the US about Greek and Roman legend/mythology, and UK authors often
make use of classical references such as this. Similarly, names from
Greek legend/mythology were frequently used in the 18th through 20th
centuries for Royal Navy Warships, so we find in WWII there was an RN
'Dido' class cruiser named HMS HERMIONE (there was a SIRIUS in the same
class, by the way....) and the name was carried again by a LEANDER class
frigate, 1965-1992 (and there was also a SIRIUS in that class....).