Menelaus - Greek Mythology Link About • Copyright © 1997 Carlos Parada and Maicar Förlag. Menelaus advanced 0218: Kopf des Menelaus. Von einer Statuengruppe im Typus des "Pasquino" Römische Kopie nach einem griechischen Werk des 2. Jh. v. Chr. Glyptotek, München. "Look to my affairs, and to the household, and to our guest from Troy ." (Menelaus to Helen . Ovid, Heroides 17.160). Menelaus is the king of Sparta who was robbed of his sweet wife Helen by a guest he received in his palace. For his sake, a fleet of unprecedented size sailed to Troy in order to demand, by persuasion or by force, the restoration of Helen and the Spartan property that the seducer Paris , breaking all laws of hospitality, had stolen. Youth King Atreus of Mycenae , having a serious feud with his brother Thyestes 1, decided to arrest him.

For this purpose he sent his sons, Agamemnon and Menelaus, who seized him in Delphi , and having brought him to Mycenae , cast him into prison, where Atreus attempted to murder him. However, having made false judgements, Atreus was himself killed by Thyestes 1's son Aegisthus , who then gave the throne to his father. As a result, the two Atrides went into exile. They first stayed with King Polyphides 1 of Sicyon , and later with King Oeneus 2 of Calydon . But afterwards, when they thought the time was ripe to dethrone Mycenae 's hostile ruler, they returned; and assisted by King Tyndareus of Sparta , they drove Thyestes 1 away to Cythera, an island off the southern coast of the Peloponnesus.

Marriage Having thus seized power, the Atrides married the daughters of Tyndareus : Agamemnon wedded Clytaemnestra , sitting as king in Mycenae ; and Menelaus, having been united to Helen , received the kingdom from his father-in-law at the time when the DIOSCURI passed away and went to heaven. The Oath of Tyndareus Now, when Helen was married, Tyndareus , following Odysseus ' advice, exacted an oath from her many SUITORS (kings and princes of Hellas), stipulating that they would defend and protect him who was chosen as Helen 's husband against any wrong done against him in regard to his marriage. This was the agreement, and Helen , they say, chose Menelaus, putting a wreath on his head. Ten years later, Menelaus received Paris as a guest in his palace, but when several days had passed he had to sail to Crete in order to attend the funeral of Catreus (his mother's father).

Taking advantage of his absence, Paris and Helen became lovers, and having put most of the Spartan treasures on board, they sailed away to Troy , leaving behind little Hermione , daughter of Menelaus and Helen , then nine years old. Coalition formed When Menelaus learned what had happened, he bade his brother Agamemnon to raise an army and demand, by means of threat, the restoration of his wife and his property. So, invoking The Oath of Tyndareus , heralds were sent across Hellas to remind the former SUITORS that they were bound to defend Helen 's husband, and help him to avenge the outrage. This is how the coalition was formed that gathered in Aulis, a Boeotian harbor opposite the island of Euboea. The mighty fleet, however, could not leave Aulis because of unfavorable winds; and as impatience grew in the army, the seer Calchas declared that they would be able to sail if Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to Artemis . This was outrageous, even for a man like Agamemnon ; for even if the ruler could accept the price, the father would not.

But Menelaus, eager to be avenged, and to have his wife and property restored, persuaded his brother to become the murderer of his own daughter, thus slaying a woman in order to be able to fetch another. Embassy This is how the army could sail; and having come to Troy , the Achaeans sent Odysseus and Menelaus to demand the restoration of Helen , and the property that the lovers had taken with them. However, the Trojans not only refused these claims, but also threatened to kill the envoys, who were saved only by the intervention of Antenor 1 , a man who pleaded for peace. For this, and perhaps for other services too, his house was spared by the Achaeans, during the sack of Troy . Single combat In the tenth year of the Trojan War , there was an attempt to solve the conflict by a single combat between Menelaus and Paris , and for that purpose a truce was agreed.

Menelaus almost killed his opponent; but when he, during the fight, seized Paris by the horsehair crest of the helmet and began to drag him, Aphrodite intervened and broke the strap of the helmet, so that it came away empty in Menelaus' hand. He then renewed his attack, but the goddess hid Paris in a mist, and took him to the city. This done, Pandarus 1 broke the truce by shooting an arrow at Menelaus that caused a shallow wound, which Machaon, son of Asclepius , healed. Troy was not taken by force more than by cunning, and it was not before Odysseus conceived the stratagem of the WOODEN HORSE that Troy could be taken. Thanks to it, the warriors that hid inside the treacherous device (among which Menelaus), could enter the city and open the gates to the rest of the army. Death of Deiphobus 1 During the sack of Troy , Menelaus' forces came to the house where Deiphobus 1 and Helen , having married after the death of Paris , lived.

When they had her new husband arrested, Menelaus cut him to pieces under torture, lopping off ears and nose, and all of his limbs one by one; and then he led Helen to the ships. Wanderings Great offences were committed by the Achaeans against the gods while sacking Troy , and on that account they had a difficult return or no return at all. Menelaus wandered for eight years in several Mediterranean before he and his wife could return to Sparta . For it is said that Menelaus, returning with five ships, came first to Sunium in Attica, but thence he was driven again by winds to Crete . And from Crete he wandered up and down Libya, and Phoenicia, and Cyprus, and Egypt, collecting treasures probably though pillage. In Egypt he lost his pilot Canobus, after whom the city east of Alexandria was named. Menelaus Menelaus - Art Gallery - Menelaus (also transliterated as Meneláos, Μενέλαος ), in Greek mythology , was a king of Sparta and son of Atreus and Aerope.

Atreus was murdered by his nephew, Aegisthus, who took possession of the throne of Mycenae and ruled jointly with his father Thyestes. During this period Menelaus and his brother, Agamemnon took refuge with Tyndareus , king of Sparta, whose daughters Helen and Clytemnestra they respectively married. Helen and Menelaus had one daughter, Hermione. Menelaus succeeded Tyndareus (whose only sons, Castor and Polydeuces became gods), and Agamemnon , with his brother's assistance, drove out Aegisthus and Thyestes , and recovered his father's kingdom. He extended his dominion by conquest and became the most powerful prince in Greece. When it was time for Helen, Tyndareus's daughter, to marry, many Greek kings and princes came to seek her hand or sent emissaries to do so on their behalf. Among the contenders were Odysseus , Menestheus, Ajax the great, Patroclus and Idomeneus , but Menelaus was the favorite though, according to some sources, he did not come in person but was represented by his brother Agamemnon.

All but Odysseus brought many and rich gifts with them. Tyndareus would accept none of the gifts, nor would he send any of the suitors away for fear of offending them and giving grounds for a quarrel. Odysseus promised to solve the problem in a satisfactory manner if Tyndareus would support him in his courting of Penelope, the daughter of Icarius . Tyndareus readily agreed and Odysseus proposed that, before the decision was made, all the suitors should swear a most solemn oath to defend the chosen husband against whoever should quarrel with the chosen one. This stratagem succeeded and Helen and Menelaus were married. Following Tyndareus's death, Menelaus became king of Sparta because the only male heirs, Castor and Polydeuces had died and ascended to Mount Olympus. Some years later, Paris , a Trojan prince came to Sparta to marry Helen, whom he had been promised by Aphrodite. Helen fell in love with him and left willingly, leaving behind Menelaus and Hermione, their nine-year-old daughter. Menelaus called upon all the other suitors to fulfill their oaths, thus beginning the Trojan War.

Virtually all of Greece took part, either attacking Troy with Menelaus or defending it from them. In the Iliad Menelaus fights bravely and well, even when wounded, and distinguishes himself particularly by recovering the body of Patroclus after the latter is killed by Hector. Although he is depicted as a reasonably wise and just leader, he has a tendency to rattle off fatuous bromides in the most inappropriate circumstances. During the war, Menelaus' weapon-carrier was Eteoneus . (Odyssey IV, 22, 31.) After the Greeks won the Trojan War, Helen returned to Sparta with Menelaus (though she had married Paris' brother, Deiphobus , after Paris' death, Menelaus killed Deiphobus). According to some versions, Menelaus stayed in the court of King Polybus of Thebes for a time after the war. Helen and Menelaus, Louvre G424 According to the Odyssey, Menelaus' homebound fleet was blown by storms to Crete and Egypt where they were unable to sail away because the wind was calm.

Menelaus had to catch Proteus, a shape-shifting sea god to find out what sacrifices to which gods he would have to make to guarantee safe passage. Proteus also told Menelaus that he was destined for Elysium (Heaven) after his death. Menelaus returned to Sparta with Helen. After Menelaus' death, his illegitimate son Megapenthes sent Helen into exile. Here is what Homer's Menelaus had to say about the war and its aftermath after the fact ( Odyssey IV ): Menelaus overheard [Telemachus] and said, "No one, my sons, can hold his own with Jove, for his house and everything about him is immortal; but among mortal men – well, there may be another who has as much wealth as I have, or there may not; but at all events I have travelled much and have undergone much hardship, for it was nearly eight years before I could get home with my fleet.

I went to Cyprus, Phoenicia and the Egyptians; I went also to the Ethiopians, the Sidonians, and the Erembians, and to Libya where the lambs have horns as soon as they are born, and the sheep lamb down three times a year. Every one in that country, whether master or man, has plenty of cheese, meat, and good milk, for the ewes yield all the year round. But while I was travelling and getting great riches among these people, my brother was secretly and shockingly murdered through the perfidy of his wicked wife, so that I have no pleasure in being lord of all this wealth. Whoever your parents may be they must have told you about all this, and of my heavy loss in the ruin of a stately mansion fully and magnificently furnished. Would that I had only a third of what I now have so that I had stayed at home, and all those were living who perished on the plain of Troy, far from Argos.

I often grieve, as I sit here in my house, for one and all of them." Detail of Menelaus from the Pompeii painting based on the work of Timanthes Menelaus and Patroclus Pausanias 8.23.4 A little beyond the city is a spring, and by the spring grows a large and beautiful plane tree. They call it Menelais, saying that the plane was planted by the spring by Menelaus, who came to the spot when he was collecting his army against Troy. To-day they give the name Menelais to the spring as well as to the plane. If I am to base my calculations on the accounts of the Greeks in fixing the relative ages of such trees as are still preserved and flourish, the oldest of them is the withy growing in the Samian sanctuary of Hera, after which come the oak in Dodona, the olive on the Acropolis and the olive in Delos. The third place in respect of age the Syrians would assign to the bay-tree they have in their country. Of the others this plane-tree is the oldest.

Menelaus Menelaus Location: some tent outside troy at the moment City of residence: Sparta Menelaus was the king of Sparta and the spurned husband of Helen, the world's most beautiful woman. Known to the world as Helen of Troy, she was originally his wife, Helen of Sparta. Of course all that changed when a handsome visitor from Troy named Paris came along... As for Menelaus, he was a portly and middle-aged fellow. How do I know this? 1. Women were married off at a fairly young age. For Helen, who was kidnapped by the famous Theseus (killer of the Minotaur, portrayed in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream as foppish,) this would have been at about sixteen or seventeen years of age, allowing time for the ignominy of her abduction to fade out of memory. Since we also know that both Helen and Paris were born at approximately the same time as Achilles because they all grew to 18 or so during the Golden Apple dispute, we can estimate Menelaus's age to be anywhere from forty upwards. Why? He certainly couldn't have been Helen's age.

Achilles, who was the same age as Helen, was forbidden from the competition as to whom should marry her because of his "extreme youth." So, Menelaus, brother or Agamemnon, who was advanced enough in age to be selected commander of the Greek forces during the Trojan War, had to be somewhere around fifty. He had had children before, and, at the time of the Trojan War, his brother had a female child of marriageable age-- so Menelaus must have been in his fifties. His brother had most likely been around thirty-five (men married later in life than did women) when his daughter (Iphigenia) was born, and by the time she was marriageable, he would have been fifty-three to fifty-five, putting Menelaus around fifty. Men of fifty or older, unless they practice an unusually stringent regime of physical fitness, tend to become paunchy. Menelaus, while a resident of a warrior state, was its king and was entitled to a life of more luxury than the common warrior. Thus, he was fat. 2. Helen found him repulsive. Helen was a mother of a baby when she left Menelaus.

Very few earthly powers can persaude a mother to leave her infant unless she is filled with loathing for the infant's father. Why loathe Menelaus? A. He was hideously ugly. B. He was fat. Being the son of Atreus and brother of Agamemnon, who seemed to have no trouble attracting women, ugliness is less likely. Thus, it must have been his weight. Other than his larger-than-normal paunch, Menelaus was a justified angry husband. When Paris ran off with his wife, he wanted revenge. This began the Trojan War. In the interest of balance, I inquired of Tamora Pierce, famous author of many fantasy books, including the (great) Alanna series and a mythology expert, whether she thought Menelaus was fat. I print her response in its unedited entirety: I always thought of him as burly & beefy, solid with muscle, not fat.

(Heavier than Agamemnon, though.) Menelaus facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Menelaus Myths and Legends of the World COPYRIGHT 2001 Macmillan Reference, USA Menelaus In Greek mythology, Menelaus, king of Sparta *, was the son of King Atreus of Mycenae and the brother of the great warrior Agamemnon *. Menelaus's beautiful wife, Helen, the daughter of Zeus * and a woman called Leda, was at the center of the events that led to the Trojan War. Before her marriage to Menelaus, Helen lived with Leda and Leda's husband, King Tyndareus of Sparta. When the time came for Helen to marry, she had many suitors. To prevent any violence against her future husband, the Greek warrior Odysseus made his countrymen swear to protect the man she agreed to wed. Helen chose Menelaus, who later became king of Sparta. The conflict with the Trojans was set in motion when Aphrodite , the goddess of love, took steps to win a beauty contest judged by Paris , a prince of Troy.

If declared the most beautiful goddess, Aphrodite promised to give Paris the most beautiful woman in the world—Helen. Aphrodite won the contest; Paris went to Sparta and took Helen away with him to Troy. The Trojans refused to send her back. Agamemnon raised an army of Greek warriors to retrieve Helen, reminding them of their oath to her husband. The story of the war between Greece and Troy appears in Homer 's* epic the Iliad . During the war, Menelaus played a minor role in the fighting, but he did face Paris in single combat. Although Menelaus came close to killing Paris, Aphrodite intervened and saved Paris, her personal favorite. epic long poem about legendary or historical heroes, written in a grand style immortal able to live forever After the Greeks defeated Troy, Menelaus returned to Sparta with Helen. However, the journey home was very difficult because he had neglected to offer sacrifices to the Trojan gods. The story of the voyage is told in Homer's Odyssey ]. When Menelaus died, he became immortal because he had married a daughter of Zeus. He joined Helen in Elysium, a place of ideal happiness in the afterlife.

See also Agamemnon; Greek Mythology; Helen Of Troy; Paris; Trojan War. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. MLA The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright The Columbia University Press Menelaus (mĕnəlā´əs), in Greek mythology, king of Sparta, son of Atreus . He was the husband of Helen , father of Hermione , and younger brother of Agamemnon . When Paris, prince of Troy, abducted Helen, Menelaus asked the other Greek kings to join him in an expedition against Troy, beginning the Trojan War . Menelaus, although subordinate to Agamemnon, took a prominent part in the war. After the fall of Troy, he became reconciled with Helen, but before they finally reached Sparta they experienced a long series of adventures. Menelaus appears in the Iliad and the Odyssey. Cite this article Menelaus | Greek mythology | Britannica.com Greek mythology Isis Menelaus, in Greek mythology , king of Sparta and younger son of Atreus , king of Mycenae ; the abduction of his wife, Helen , led to the Trojan War .

During the war Menelaus served under his elder brother Agamemnon , the commander in chief of the Greek forces. When Phrontis, one of his crewmen, was killed, Menelaus delayed his voyage until the man had been buried, thus giving evidence of his strength of character. After the fall of Troy , Menelaus recovered Helen and brought her home. Menelaus was a prominent figure in the Iliad and the Odyssey , where he was promised a place in Elysium after his death because he was married to a daughter of Zeus . The poet Stesichorus (flourished 6th century bce) introduced a refinement to the story that was used by Euripides in his play Helen: it was a phantom that was taken to Troy, while the real Helen went to Egypt , from where she was rescued by Menelaus after he had been wrecked on his way home from Troy and the phantom Helen had disappeared. Menelaus, detail from Menelaus Supporting the Body of Patroclus, 17th-century restoration of … © Timur Kulgarin/Shutterstock.com Greek mythology body of stories concerning the gods, heroes, and rituals of the ancient Greeks.

That the myths contained a considerable element of fiction was recognized by the more critical Greeks, such as the philosopher Plato in the 5th–4th century bce. In general, however, in the popular piety of the... Sparta ancient capital of the Laconia district of the southeastern Peloponnese, Greece, and capital of the present-day nomós (department) of Laconia (Modern Greek: Lakonía) on the right bank of the Evrótas Potamós (river). The sparsity of ruins from antiquity around the modern... Atreus in Greek legend, the son of Pelops of Mycenae and his wife, Hippodamia. Atreus was the elder brother of Thyestes and was the king of Mycenae. The story of his family—the House of Atreus—is virtually unrivaled in antiquity for complexity and corruption. There are several different... 5 References found in Britannica Articles Assorted Reference Corrections? Updates? Help us improve this article! Contact our editors with your feedback. MEDIA FOR: You have successfully emailed this. Error when sending the email. Try again later. Edit Mode Submit Tips For Editing We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles.

You can make it easier for us to review and, hopefully, publish your contribution by keeping a few points in mind. Encyclopædia Britannica articles are written in a neutral objective tone for a general audience. You may find it helpful to search within the site to see how similar or related subjects are covered. Any text you add should be original, not copied from other sources. At the bottom of the article, feel free to list any sources that support your changes, so that we can fully understand their context. (Internet URLs are the best.) Your contribution may be further edited by our staff, and its publication is subject to our final approval. Unfortunately, our editorial approach may not be able to accommodate all contributions. Submit Thank You for Your Contribution! Our editors will review what you've submitted, and if it meets our criteria, we'll add it to the article. Please note that our editors may make some formatting changes or correct spelling or grammatical errors, and may also contact you if any clarifications are needed. Uh Oh There was a problem with your submission. Please try again later.

Close Date Published: July 08, 2015 URL: Access Date: January 19, 2017 Share Menelaus (Character) - Comic Vine 1 appearances No recent wiki edits to this page. Menelaus was a son of Atreus, King of Mycenae and his wife Aerope of Crete. His early life was dominated by the constant conflicts between Atreus (his father) and Thyestes (his paternal uncle). Menelaus and his brother Agamemnon reportedly spend a few years in exile, first at Sicyon, then at Calydon. Eventually the two brothers managed to gain the alliance of Tyndareus, King of Sparta and campaigned to get the throne of Mycenae. It was Agamemnon who rose to the throne. Marrying Clytaemnestra, elder daughter of Tyndareus. to secure his position. Menelaus became one of many suitors of Helen, younger daughter of Tyndareus. He won her hand in marriage and in time the throne of Sparta. Tyndareus had two famous sons: Castor and Polydeuces (Pollux) but they died young.

Leaving Menelaus as heir to his father-in-law. The couple soon had a daughter: Hermione. Menelaus seems to have led an uneventful life for a few years. Then Paris of Troy visited Sparta. Menelaus soon had to leave Sparta. His maternal grandfather Catreus had just died and Menelaus needed to attend the funeral. He entrusted the welfare of the visitor to Helen. Not long after, Paris leftb Sparta and took Helen with him. With his authority seriously undermined, Menelaus asked Agamemnon to help retrieve her. The result of their efforts was the Trojan War, lasting at least a decade. Menelaus distinguished himself in the conflict and once won a duel with Paris. At the end of the War, Menelaus regained possession of Helen. Following the War, Menelaus and Helen wandered the Meditteranean with their ships, supposedly trying to locate Sparta. In the process, the two visited Attica, Crete, Libya, Phoenicia, Cyprus and Egypt. They arrived at Sparta eight years following the end of the Trojan War. They found out that many of their allies, including Agamemnon, were long dead and others still wandered the seas.

Menelaus got to work re-establishing his position. Hen had Hermione married to Neoptolemus, King of Pthia. a son of Achilles. Menelaus seems to have lived out his last years in piece. He died of old age, unlike most of the protagonists of the War. Orestes, King of Mycenae (son of Agamemnon) had by that time killed Neoptolemus and claimed Hermione as his own wife. Orestes was able to claim the throne of Sparta as well. General Information Menelaus Menelaus NEXT Menelaus was the king of Sparta, but he’s most famous for getting royally dumped. When his gorgeous wife Helen ran off with Paris, the pretty boy of Troy, Menelaus was beyond angry. He called up his powerful brother Agamemnon and together they drafted the who’s who of Greece to sail to Troy and avenge Menelaus’ honor. Next thing you know, the biggest army of Greeks the world had ever seen was knocking on the gates of Troy, and the Trojan War swiftly kicked into high gear. Ten years and one giant wooden horse later, Troy was in ruins, and Helen was back in her husband’s arms.

The lesson here? Never make a Spartan mad. Basic Information Who is Menelaus in The Odyssey and Iliad? | eNotes Who is Menelaus in The Odyssey and Iliad? bullgatortail | High School Teacher | (Level 1) Distinguished Educator Posted on August 30, 2012 at 2:00 PM Menelaos (or Menelaus) is the powerful king of Sparta whose wife is the beautiful Helen, whose abduction by Paris set off the Trojan War. Menelaus is also the brother of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and commander of the allied Greek armies in their war against the Trojans. Despite the circumstances of Helen's apparently willing accompaniment with Paris to Troy, Menelaus never seems to feel betrayed by her actions, and they both seem happy when they are reunited afterward. Menelaus befriends Odysseus's son, Telemachus, during his search for his father, and the Spartan king offers the young man to assist in the search for the missing Odysseus.

Sources: carol-davis | College Teacher | (Level 1) Educator Emeritus Posted on August 30, 2012 at 1:58 PM Menelaus was the king of Mycenea or Sparta. His place in literature comes from his famous wife Helen of Troy. Helen considered to be the most beautiful woman in the world was pursued by many princes and Kings. The final decision as to who would be her husband came from drawing straws. Menelaus won. Homer's Iliad tells the story of Paris, prince of Troy, who visits Menelaus at his palace. Paris has been promised by Aphrodite the most beautiful woman to marry. There he sees Helen and is smitten by her. Thinking only of himself, Paris forgets the consequences of his actions and persuades Helen to come with him and be his lover. She accompanies him to Troy. The Trojans refuse to return Helen to Menelaus. From these events, a twenty year war encompasses most of Greece. Of course, Menelaus is not happy. He calls on all of the rulers who had promised to help him if anyone tried to take Helen from him.

Among these rulers, are Agamemnon, Menelaus's brother, and eventually the ruler of the Greeks, who lay seige on Troy to return Helen and gain revenge for this afront to Menelaus. During the war, Menelaus played a minor role in the fighting, but he did face Paris in single combat. Although Menelaus came close to killing Paris, Aphrodite intervened and saved Paris, her personal favorite. Rightfully, this should have ended the war. Paris had been defeated, and Helen should have been returned to her husband. Not so, in Greek mythology or in the Iliad. After many years of fighting and scores of deaths, the Greeks create the Trojan horse. Menelaus was one of the Greeks hidden inside the belly of the horse. This ploy ended the Trojan war. Menelaus was intent on killing Helen for her deception and rebuking her oath to him. Yet, when he saw her beauty, he wilted and took her back into his arms. Sources: Start your free trial for complete access to this answer and thousands more. Homework Help 300,000+ answers or ask real teachers questions on any subject.

30,000+ Study Guides Save time with thousands of teacher-approved book and topic summaries. On the Go Access MENELAUS, Greek Mythology Index MENELAUS ΜΕΝΕΛΑΟΣ Or Meneleôs, or Menelas, a son of Atreus , and younger brother of Agamemnon and Anaxibia . He was king of Lacedaemon, and married to the beautiful Helen , by whom he was the father of Hermione and Megapenthes (Hom. Il. vii. 470, x. 37, Od. iv. 11, &c. xi. 469; comp. AGAMEMNON ). When his wife Helen had been carried off by Paris , Menelaus and Odysseus set out to Troy to claim her back. Menelaus was hospitably treated by Antenor (Hom. Il. iii. 206), but the journey was of no avail, and the Trojan Antimachus even advised his fellow-citizens to kill Menelaus and Odysseus (xi. 139, &c.).

In order, therefore, to avenge the rape of Helen, and to punish the offender, Menelaus and his brother resolved to march against Troy with all the forces that Greece could muster (i. 159, ii. 589, iii. 351, &c.). The two brothers, in their travels through Greece to rouse the chiefs to avenge the insult offered to a Greek prince, also visited Odysseus in Ithaca (Hom. Od. xxiv. 115), along with whom Menelaus is said to have consulted the Delphic oracle about the expedition against Troy; and at Delphi he dedicated the necklace of Helen to Athena Pronoea (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1166). Hereupon Menelaus in sixty ships led the inhabitants of Lacedaemon, Pharis, Sparta, Messe, Bryseiae, Amyclae, Helos, Laas, and Oetylus, against Troy (Il. ii. 581, &c.). In Troas he was under the special protection of Hera and Athena, and one of the most gallant heroes (iv. 8, 129, v.

715), who slew many Trojans, such as Scamandrius (v. 50), Pylaemenes (v. 576), Peisander (xiii. 614, &c.), Dolops (xv. 541), Thoas (xvi. 311), Euphorbus (xvii. 45), and Podes (xvii. 575). We shall pass over his minor exploits, and mention only his engagement with Paris . When Menelaus saw his chief enemy stepping forth from the Trojan ranks, he rejoiced like a lion at the sight of a stag, and leaped from his chariot to attack him (Il. iii. 27, &c.); but Paris took to flight, until, encouraged by Hector , he challenged Menelaus to decide the contest for the possession of Helen and the treasures by single combat (iii. 97, &c.). Menelaus accepted the challenge, and his spear penetrated the shield of Paris, but did not wound him. Menelaus thereupon drew his sword, which, however, broke on the shield of his opponent.

He then seized him by the helmet, and dragged him to the camp of the Achaeans. But Aphrodite loosened the helmet and wrapped her favourite in a cloud, in which he escaped from his enemy (iii. 325, &c., iv. 12, &c.). At the funeral games of Patroclus , Menelaus fought with Antilochus in the chariot race, but voluntarily gave up the second prize, and was satisfied with the third (xxiii. 293, 401, 516-609). Menelaus also was one of the heroes concealed in the wooden horse (Od. iv. 280; comp. Virg. Aen. ii. 264); and, along with Odysseus , he hastened to the house of Deiphobus , as soon as the town was taken (Od. viii. 518; Virg. Aen. vi. 523). After the destruction of Troy, he advised the assembled Achaeans to return home, which involved him in a dispute with his brother (Od. iii. 141, &c.).

He was among the first that sailed away from Troy, accompanied by his wife Helen and Nestor (Od iii. 276). When near the coast of Attica, his steersman Phrontis died, and Menelaus was detained some time by his burial. When he reached Maleia, Zeus sent a storm, in which part of his ships were thrown on the coast of Crete, and five others and Menelaus himself landed in Egypt (iii, 278; comp. Paus. x. 25. § 2). After this he wandered about for eight years in the eastern parts of the Mediterranean, where he visited Cyprus, Phoenicia, the Ethiopians, the Erembians, and Libya. These Eastern people were not so inhospitable as those in the West who were visited by Odysseus, and on his return home Menelaus brought with him a large number of presents which he had received (Od. iii. 301, 312, iv. 90, 128, 131, 228, 617; comp. Herod. ii. 113, 116).

His last stay on his wanderings was in the island of Pharos, near the coast of Egypt, where he remained twenty days (Od. iv. 355), being kept back by the gods. Hunger already began to affect his companions, and his steersman Canobus died (Strab. p. 801). Eidothea , the daughter of Proteus , advised him to seize her father, who would reveal to him the means of returning home. Proteus, when caught, told him that he must first return to Egypt and propitiate the gods with hecatombs. This Menelaus did, and having there erected a monument to his brother, whose death he learned from Proteus, he, next to Odysseus, the last of the heroes, returned home, and arrived at Sparta on the very day on which Orestes was engaged in burying Clytaemnestra and Aegisthus (Od. iv. 365; comp. i. 286, iii. 257, 311).

Henceforward he lived with Helen at Sparta in peace, comfort, and wealth, and his palace shone in its splendour like the sun or the moon (iv. 45, 72, 80; comp. Paus. iii. 14. § 6). At the time when Telemachus came to him to inquire after his father, Menelaus was just solemnising the marriage of his daughter Hermione with Neoptolemus , and of his son Megapenthes with a daughter of Alector (iv. 1, &c.). According to the Homeric poems Menelaus was a man of an athletic figure; he spoke little, but what he said was always impressive; he was brave and courageous, but milder than Agamemnon, intelligent and hospitable. According to the prophecy of Proteus, Menelaus and Helen were not to die, but the gods were to conduct them to Elysium (iv. 561); but according to a later tradition, he and Helen went to the Taurians, where they were sacrificed by Iphigeneia to Artemis (Ptolem. Heph. 4).

Menelaus was worshipped as a hero at Therapne, where also his tomb and that of Helen were shown (Paus. iii. 19. § 9). On the chest of Cypselus lie was represented at the moment when, after the taking of Troy, he was on the point of killing Helen. (Paus. v. 18. § 1. [See also HELENA .]

Question: Who, for a time, was the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta ?
Answer: HELEN