Hermione, Argolis

Hermione (Ancient Greek: Ἑρμιόνη) or Hermium or Hermion (Ἑρμιών or Ἑρμιῶν) was a town at the southern extremity of Argolis, in the wider use of this term, but an independent city during the Classical period of Greek history, and possessing a territory named Hermionis (Ἑρμιονίς).

The sea between the southern coast of Argolis and the island of Hydra was called after it the Hermionitic Gulf (Ancient Greek: Ἑρμιονικὸς κόλπος, romanized: Hermionikos kolpos; Latin: Hermionicus Sinus), which was regarded as distinct from the Argolic and Saronic Gulfs. The ruins of the ancient town lie about the modern village of Ermioni.

According to Greek mythology, Hermione was founded by the Dryopes, who are said to have been driven out of their original abodes on Mount Oeta and its adjacent valleys by Heracles, and to have settled in the Peloponnesus, where their three chief towns were Hermione, Asine, and Eïon. Hermione is mentioned by Homer along with its kindred city Asine in the Catalogue of Ships in the Iliad.

Asine and Eïon were conquered at an early period by the Dorians, but Hermione continued to exist as an independent Dryopian state long afterwards. Hermione appears to have been the most important of the Dryopian towns, and to have been in possession at one time of a larger portion of the adjacent coast, as well as of several of the neighboring islands.