03/06/04

Menelaus is most well known as the king of Sparta who was robbed of his wife Helen by a guest he received in his palace. For his sake, a fleet of unprecedented size sailed to Troy in order to retrieve Helen.

The story behind Menelaus begins with King Atreus of Mycenae, having a serious feud with his brother Thyestes, he decided to arrest him. Atreus had Agamemnon and Menelaus, who seized him in Delphi, brought him to Mycenae, and cast him into prison, where Atreus attempted to murder him. However, because of his misjudgments, Atreus was killed by Thyestes’s son Aegisthus, who then gave the throne to his father.

As a result, Agamemnon and Atreus were forced into exile. The former stayed with King Polyphides of Sicyon, and latter stayed with King Oeneus of Calydon. They eventually returned with intent to dethrone Thyestes; and with assistance from King Tyndareus of Sparta, they drove Thyestes away to Cythera, an island off the southern coast of the Peloponnesus.

Having thus seized power, the two married the daughters of Tyndareus: Agamemnon wedded Clytaemnestra, and became king in Mycenae; and Menelaus, united to Helen, and would later inherit the kingdom. Helen’s father, Tyndareus, following Odysseus' advice, exacted an oath from her many suitors (kings and princes of Hellas), stipulating that they would defend and protect he who was chosen as Helen's husband against any wrong done against him in regard to his marriage. This was the agreement, and Menelaus was the suitor chosen.

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 (most likely with Aphrodite’s help), and having put most of the Spartan treasures on board, they sailed away to Troy, leaving behind Hermione, daughter of Menelaus and Helen, then only nine years old.

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, Menelaus had heralds sent across Hellas to remind the former suitors that they were bound to defend Helen's husband, and help him be avenged. 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 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 could not. But Menelaus, eager to have his wife and property restored, persuaded his brother to become the murderer of his own daughter, thus slaying one in order to be able to fetch another.

 The army could set sail and having come to Troy, the Achaeans sent Odysseus and Menelaus to demand Helen’s return, 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, a man who pleaded for peace.

In the tenth year of the Trojan War, Menelaus attempted to solve the conflict with a single combat between him and Paris and for a truce until the battle ended. Menelaus nearly killed his opponent, but when he 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's hand. He then renewed his attack, but the goddess hid Paris in a mist, and took him to the city. Soon after, Pandarus broke the truce by shooting an arrow at Menelaus that caused a shallow wound.

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. The warriors that hid inside the treacherous device, Menelaus included, could enter the city and open the gates to the rest of the army.

During the sack of Troy, Menelaus's forces came to the house where Deiphobus and Helen lived. Deiphobus was the husband Helen had after Paris’s death. They had her new husband arrested, and Menelaus cut him to pieces under torture, lopping off ears and nose, and all of his limbs one by one, before leading Helen to the ships. It is said that he was so shocked by Helen’s beauty that he could not hold any ill will towards her.

Because great offences were committed against the gods while sacking Troy, the Achaeans were condemned to a difficult and long journey home or failure. Menelaus wandered for eight years in the Mediterranean before he and his wife could return to Sparta. Returning with five ships, Menelaus came first to Sunium in Attica, but 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.

In Egypt he met Proteus, a seer knowing past, present, and future, but reluctant to answer questions, which he avoided by changing semblance. Following the advice of Eidothea (daughter of Proteus), Menelaus ambushed him and bound him with a chain, to force him reveal when he would reach home. Proteus 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.

On his return via Argos, Menelaus met his nephew Orestes, 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 asked Menelaus for help, reminding him of the assistance he had received from Agamemnon when Helen was abducted.

But Menelaus merely 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, along with his sister and Pylades, planned to murder Helen, but it was a deed that never took place, with the gods preferring other courses of action.

Menelaus had promised Hermione’s hand in marriage twice, first to Orestes, 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 at the time was insane, Menelaus decided to honor the promise he had made at Troy. But later, Orestes recovered, killed Neoptolemus, and took Hermione to wife. Hermione was utterly unhappy at Neoptolemus' home, since her husband kept Andromache as a concubine, and had children by her. Because of this Menelaus, defending his child, attempted to murder this woman, but was resisted by Peleus.

Some years later, when Menelaus had regained kingdom, wife, and peace, Telemachus, looking for his father, visited him to see if he could get information about him. As it appeared then, Helen and Menelaus led a pleasant life in their palace. When his life ended, Menelaus was made immortal by Hera, and some affirm that he dwells in the Elysian Fields (the equivalent of heaven) together with Helen.

By Sander Leung