, (or Μενέλεις), 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. 7.470, 10.37, Od. 4.11, &100.11.469;
comp. AGAMEMNON). When his wife Helen had been carried off by Paris,
Menelaus and Odvsseus set out to Troy to claim her back. Meneiaus was hospitably treated by
Antenor (Hom. Il. 3.206), but the journey was of no avail, and
the Trojan Antimachus even advised his fellow-citizens to kill Menelaus and Odysseus (11.139,
&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 (1.159, 2.589, 3.351, &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. 24.115), 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. 2.581, &c.). In Troas he was under the special protection
of Hera and Athena, and one of the most gallant heroes (4.8, 129, 5.715), who slew many
Trojans, such as Scamandrius (5.50), Pylaemenus (5.576), Peisander (13.614, &c.), Dolops
(15.541), Thoas (16.311), Euphorbus (17.45), and Podes (17.575).
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.
3.27, &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
(3.97, &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 (3.325, &c., 4.12, &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 (23.293, 401, 516-609). Menelaus also was one of the heroes
concealed in the wooden horse (Od. 4.280; comp. Verg. A. 2.264); and, along with Odysseus, he hastened to the house
of Deiphobus, as soon as the town was taken (Od. 8.518; Verg. A. 6.523). After the destruction of Troy, he advised the
assembled Achaeans to return home, which involved him in a dispute with his brother (Od. 3.141, &c.). He was among the first that sailed away from
Troy. accompanied by his wife Helen and Nestor (Od 3.276). 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. 10.25.2). 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. 3.301, 312, 4.90, 128, 131, 228, 617; comp. Hdt. 2.113, 116). His last stay on his wanderings was in the island of Pharos, near
the coast of Egypt, where he remained twenty days (Od. 4.355),
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. 4.365; comp. 1.286, 3.257, 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
(4.45, 72, 80; comp. Paus. 3.14.6). 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
(4.1, &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 (4.561); 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. 3.19.9). On the chest
of Cypselus he was represented at the moment when, after the taking of Troy, he was on the
point of killing Helen. (Paus. 5.18.1; comp. Millingen, Inedit. Monum. 1.32). [HELENA.]