Menelāüs
（
Μενέλαος and
Μενέλεως).
A son of Atreus, and younger brother of Agamemnon, with whom he was exiled by Thyestes, the
murderer of Atreus, and fled to King Tyndareos, at Sparta, whose daughter Helen he married,
and whose throne he inherited after the death of Helen's brothers, Castor and Polydeuces
(Pollux). When Paris had robbed him of his wife and of great treasures, he went with Odysseus
to Troy to demand restitution, and they were hospitably received there by Antenor. His just
claims were refused, and his life was even put in danger. He and Agamemnon accordingly called
on the Greek chieftains to join in an expedition against Troy, and himself furnished sixty
ships. At Troy he distinguished himself in counsel and in action, and was specially protected
by Athené and Heré. In the single combat with Paris he was victorious,
but his opponent was rescued and carried off by Aphrodité. On demanding that Helen
and the treasures should be restored, he was wounded by an arrow shot by the Trojan Pandarus.
He was also ready to fight Hector, and was only prevented by the entreaties of his friends.
When Patroclus had fallen, he shielded the dead body, at first alone, and then with the aid of
Aiax, and bore it from the field of battle with Meriones. He was also one of the heroes
of the wooden horse. Having recovered Helen he hastened home, but on rounding the promontory
of Malea was driven to Egypt with five ships, and wandered about for eight years among the
peoples of the East, where he was kindly received everywhere, and received rich presents. He
was finally detained at the isle of Pharos by contrary winds, and with the help of the marine
goddess Eidothea artfully compelled her father Proteus to prophesy to him. He thus learned the
reason for his being detained at the island, and was also told that, as husband of the
daughter of Zeus, he would not die, but enter the Elysian plains alive. After appeasing the
gods in Egypt with hecatombs, he returned prosperously to his home, where he arrived on the
very day on which Orestes was burying Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra. He spent the rest of his
life quietly with Helen, in Lacedaemon. Their only daughter Hermioné was married to
Neoptolemus, son of Achilles. See
Helena;
Trojan War.
