Quote Originally Posted by Throbert McGee View Post
By the way, in Russian translations of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, the character we call Helen of Troy became Елена (pronounced "Yelena"), yet for some reason Helen's daughter Hermione became Гермиона -- which is also the spelling used in the Harry Potter translations. (Yet in the original Greek, both Helen and Hermione start with the same sound.)
Ἑλένη and Ἑρμιόνη. As far as I know this 'inverted comma letter' in the beginning is always H in LATIN(IZED) tradition. In Russian it can be either "Г" (old Greek transliteration system used to sound as in Ancient Greek for classical names as Геракл, Гераклит, Геродот и т.п., LATIN tradition also uses it) or 'no sound at all' (new system, close to new Greek tradition, and used in Russian for contemporary names).

So in Russian, as Елена is a contemporary name (and a popular one), it falls into the second category ('no sound at all').

Other classic examples would be: Hellenistic vs Эллинистический, Helio- vs Гелио- (all things related to sun). You always have H in English, but in Russian 2 cases are possible.

The historic development of Greek and changes in Greek pronunciation resulted in such intricacies.