Hermione's name

[greyshi]

No: HPFGUIDX 35269

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "hp_lexicon" <hp_lexicon at y...> wrote:
 
> > I was wondering if anyone knew of an instance when someone had 
> asked 
> > JKR about the significance of Hermione's name? 
> 
> Here's what the Lexicon says about Hermione's name, according to JKR:
> 
> JKR chose the name Hermione from a Shakespeare play, "A Winter's 
> Tale," although she says that the characters are not at all similar. 

I find it interesting that JKR also named her own daughter after a name 
that Shakespeare invented.

Shakespeare himself probably got Hermione from Greek mythology where it 
is the feminine form of Hermes. The Greek Hermione was involved in a 
love triangle as the wife of the son of Achilles. Or maybe it was a 
love square? Because he took Hector's daughter as his second wife and 
then Orestes (another Trojan War figure) wanted to marry Hermione, so 
he had Achilles' son killed....

Maybe I'm reading more into the names than JKR intended, or maybe it's 
just clever coincidence, but Hermes was the god of cunning and *
invention* he carried the caduceus, the symbol of medical professionals 
(dentists.) Minerva is the Roman name for the Greek Goddess Athena. 
Athena was the goddess of wisedom and *invention*. She was considered 
to be a studious, severe, virginal goddess (I guess compared to 
Aphrodite?) who was just and noble. Owls were one of her symbols. Roman 
schools were called athenaeums.