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"Look to my affairs, and
to the household, and to our guest from
Troy." [Menelaus to
Helen. Ovid,
Heroides
17.160]
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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.
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Youth
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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.
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Marriage
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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.
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The Oath of
Tyndareus
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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.
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Wife escapes with lover
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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.
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Coalition formed
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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 harbour opposite the island of Euboea.
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Aulis
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The mighty fleet, however, could not leave Aulis
because of unfavourable 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.
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Embassy
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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.
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Single combat
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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.
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The WOODEN HORSE
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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.
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Death of Deiphobus 1
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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.
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Wanderings
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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.
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Proteus 2
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There are those who have affirmed that Menelaus
discovered Helen at the
court of Proteus 3,
king of Egypt, realizing that the whole war had
been fought for the sake of a phantom.
But others say that in Egypt he met
Proteus 2, a seer
knowing past, present, and future, but reluctant to
answer questions, which he avoided by changing
semblance. Following the advice of Eidothea 1
(daughter of Proteus
2), Menelaus ambushed him and bound him with a
chain, to force him reveal when he would reach
home. Proteus 2 told
him that the gods were angry at the fall of
Troy, and that he should
appease them with an offering. Menelaus then did as
instructed, and eight years after leaving
Troy he returned home with
Helen.
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How Menelaus repaid
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On his return via
Argos, Menelaus met his
nephew Orestes 2, who
had just avenged his father's murder, and was
pursued by the laws of men as well as by those
divine. Threatened by the death penalty, which the
Argives wished to impose on him and his sister,
Orestes 2 asked
Menelaus for help, reminding him of the assistance
he had received from
Agamemnon when
Helen was abducted.
But Menelaus, who was not ready to help, just
promised to beg the citizens and
Tyndareus, father of
both Helen and
Clytaemnestra, for
mercy. For, as Menelaus deemed, to oppose
Tyndareus (his wife's
father, and the man from whom he expected to
inherit the Spartan throne), was not his wisest
choice.
This is why Orestes
2, along with his sister and Pylades, planned
to murder Helen, a deed
that never took place, the gods preferring other
courses of action.
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Hermione
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One of these concerned
Hermione, whom Menelaus
promised in marriage twice, first to
Orestes 2, before the
Trojan War, and then
to Neoptolemus, when
they were at Troy.
When the war was over,
Neoptolemus came to
Sparta, and demanded
Hermione from Menelaus.
Since Orestes 2 at the
time was insane, Menelaus decided to honour the
promise he had made at Troy
. But later, Orestes 2
recovered, killed
Neoptolemus, and
took Hermione to wife.
This girl was utterly unhappy at
Neoptolemus' home,
since her husband kept
Andromache as a
concubine, and had children by her. For this
Menelaus, defending his child, attempted to murder
this woman, but was resisted by
Peleus.
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Home life; eternal life
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Some years later, when Menelaus had regained
kingdom, wife, and peace,
Telemachus, looking
for his father, visited him to see if he could get
some news about him. As it appeared then,
Helen and Menelaus led a
pleasant life in their palace. When life was over,
Menelaus was made immortal by
Hera, and some affirm that
he dwells in the Elysian Fields together with
Helen.
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