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Menelaus

In Greek mythology, Menelaus (Ancient Greek: Μενέλαος, Menelaos) was a legendary king of Mycenaean (pre-Dorian) Sparta, the husband of Helen of Troy, and a central figure in the Trojan War. He was the son of Atreus and Aerope, and brother of Agamemnon king of Mycenae and, according to the Iliad, leader of the Spartan contingent of the Greek army during the War. Prominent in both the Iliad and Odyssey, Menelaus was also popular in Greek vase painting and Greek tragedy; the latter more as a hero of the Trojan War than as a member of the doomed House of Atreus.

Ascension and reign[link]

Although early authors such as Aeschylus refer in passing to Menelaus' early life, detailed sources are quite late, post-dating 5th-century BC Greek tragedy.^[1] According to these sources, Menelaus' father Atreus had been feuding with his brother Thyestes over the throne of Mycenae. After a back-and-forth struggle that featured adultery, incest and cannibalism, Thyestes gained the throne after his son Aegisthus murdered Atreus. As a result, Atreus’ sons, Menelaus and Agamemnon, went into exile. They first stayed with King Polyphides of Sicyon, and later with King Oeneus of Calydon. But when they thought the time was ripe to dethrone Mycenae's hostile ruler, they returned. Assisted by King Tyndareus of Sparta, they drove Thyestes away, and Agamemnon took the throne for himself.

When it was time for Tyndareus' step-daughter Helen 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. Most offered opulent gifts to win Tyndareus' favor. But 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 Tyndareus' niece 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 in any quarrel. Then it was decreed that straws were to be drawn for Helen's hand. The suitor who won was Menelaus (Tyndareus, not to displease the powerful Agamemnon offered him another daughter Clytaemnestra).^[2] The rest of the Greek kings swore their oaths, and Helen and Menelaus were married, Menelaus becoming a ruler of Sparta with Helen after Tyndareus and Leda either died or abdicated the thrones. Menelaus and Helen had a daughter, Hermione as supported, for example, by Sappho^[3] and some variations of the myth suggest they had two sons as well.

Their palace (ἀνάκτορον) has been discovered (the excavations started in 1926 and continued until 1995) in Pellana, Laconia, to the north-west of modern (and classical) Sparta.^[4] Other archaeologists consider that Pellana is too far away from other Mycenaean centres to have been the "capital of Menelaus.^[5]

Trojan War[link]

Menelaus regains Helen, detail of an Attic red-figure crater, ca. 450–440 BC, found in Gnathia (now Egnazia, Italy).

In a return for awarding her a golden apple inscribed "to the fairest," Aphrodite promised Paris the most beautiful woman in all the world.^[6] After concluding a diplomatic mission to Sparta during the latter part of which Menelaus was absent to attend the funeral of his maternal grandfather Catreus,^[7] Paris absconded to Troy with Helen in tow despite his brother Hector forbidding her to depart with them. Invoking the oath of Tyndareus, Menelaus and Agamemnon raised a fleet of one thousand ships according to legend and went to Troy to secure Helen's return; the Trojans were recalcitrant, providing a casus belli for the Trojan War. Indeed, his name is interpreted in Greek as "Μῆνις Λαοῦ" (Wrath of the People) fitting his 'historing" role in the epics or "Μένος Λαοῦ" (Force/Impetus of the People). .^[8]

Homer's Iliad is the most expansive source for Menelaus' exploits during the Trojan War. In Book 3, Menelaus challenges Paris to a duel for Helen's return. Menelaus soundly beats Paris, but before he can kill him and claim victory Aphrodite spirits Paris away inside the walls of Troy. In Book 4, while the Greeks and Trojans squabble over the duel's winner, Athena inspires the Trojan Pandarus to kill Menelaus with his bow and arrow. Menelaus is wounded in the abdomen, and the fighting resumes. Later, in Book 17, Homer gives Menelaus an extended aristeia as the hero retrieves the corpse of Patroclus from the battlefield.

According to Hyginus, Menelaus killed eight men in the war, and was one of the Greeks hidden inside the Trojan Horse. During the sack of Troy, Menelaus killed Deiphobus, who had married Helen after the death of Paris.

There are three versions of Menelaus' and Helen's reunion on the night of the sack of Troy: a) Menelaus resolved to kill Helen but Euripides tells us that, when he found her, her striking beauty prompted him to drop his sword and take her back to his ship “to punish her at Sparta”, as he claimed, but in reality she got away with it.^[9] b) According to the Bibliotheca Epitome and Proclus in "Ilion's Conquest", Menelaus raised his sword in front of the temple of Minerva in the central square of Troy to kill her but his wrath went away when he saw her tearing her clothes to reveal her breasts. c) A similar version by Stesichorus in “Ilion’s Conquest” narrated that Menelaus surrendered her indeed to his soldiers to stone her to death; however, when she ripped the front of her robes, the Achaean warriors got stunned by her beauty and the stones fell harmlessly from their hands.

After the war[link]

Book 4 of the Odyssey provides an account of Menelaus' return from Troy and his homelife in Sparta. When visited by Odysseus' son Telemachus, Menelaus recounts his voyage home. As happened to many Greeks, Menelaus' ship was blown off course. While stranded in Egypt, Menelaus learned from Proteus how he could return home. After their homecoming, Menelaus and Helen's marriage is strained; Menelaus continually revisits the human cost of the Trojan War, particularly in light of the fact that Helen could not provide him a male heir. According to Euripides' Helen, after Menelaus dies, he is reunited with Helen on the Isle of the Blessed.^[10]

Menelaus in vase painting[link]

Menelaus appears in Greek vase painting in the 6th to 4th centuries BC, such as: Menelaus' reception of Paris at Sparta; his retrieval of Patroclus' corpse; and his reunion with Helen.^[11]

Menelaus in Greek tragedy[link]

Menelaus appears as a character in a number of 5th-century Greek tragedies: Sophocles' Ajax, and Euripides' Andromache, Helen, Orestes, Iphigenia at Aulis, and The Trojan Women.

Menelaus in other media[link]

• Menelaus is portrayed by Niall MacGinnis in the 1956 film Helen of Troy.

• Patrick Magee portrayed Menelaus in the 1971 film of The Trojan Women.

• In the Coen Brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which is loosely based on Homer's Odyssey, Academy Award nominated actor Charles Durning plays Governor Menelaus 'Pappy' O'Daniel.

• A more faithful and sympathetic portrayal is presented by James Callis in the 2003 miniseries Helen of Troy.

• Menelaus also appears in the 2004 film Troy, portrayed by Brendan Gleeson. Like the 1957 film that influenced it, Menelaus is portrayed as a brutish king out for revenge. He duels Paris and wins, but Paris retreats to his brother, Hector. When Menelaus wants to strike the finishing blow, Hector kills him to protect his brother.

• Menelaus is a character in John Barth's short story, "Menelaiad" which is part of Lost in the Funhouse.

See also[link]

• USS Menelaus (ARL-13)

Notes[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Menelaus

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Menelaus.

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Helen and Menelaus: Menelaus intends to strike Helen; struck by her beauty, he drops his sword. A flying Eros and Aphrodite (on the left) watch the scene. Detail of an Attic red-figure krater, c. 450–440 BC (Paris, Louvre)

In Greek mythology, Helen of Troy (in Greek, Ἑλένη, Helénē), also known as Helen of Sparta, was the daughter of Zeus and Leda (or Nemesis), step-daughter of King Tyndareus, wife of Menelaus and sister of Castor, Polydeuces and Clytemnestra. Her abduction by Paris brought about the Trojan War.

Etymology[link]

The etymology of Helen's name has been a problem to scholars until the present. Georg Curtius related Helen (Ἑλένη) to the moon (Selene Σελήνη). Émile Boisacq considered Ἑλένη from the noun ἑλένη meaning "torch".^[1] It has also been suggested that the λ of Ἑλένη arose from an original ν, and thus the etymology of the name is connected with the root of Venus. Linda Lee Clader, however, says that none of the above suggestions offers much satisfaction.^[2]

If the name has an Indo-European etymology, it is possibly a suffixed form of a root *wel- "to turn, roll",^[3] or of *sel- "to flow, run".^[4] The latter possibility would allow comparison to the Vedic Sanskrit Saraṇyū, a character who is abducted in Rigveda 10.17.2. This parallel is suggestive of a Proto-Indo-European abduction myth. Saraṇyū means "swift" and is derived from the adjective saraṇa ("running", "swift"), the feminine of which is saraṇā; this is in every sound cognate with Ἑλένα, the form of her name that has no initial digamma.^[5] The possible connection of Helen's name to ἑλένη ("torch"), as noted above, may also support the relationship of her name to Vedic svaranā ("the shining one").^[6][7]

Prehistoric and mythological context[link]

Map of the Homeric Greece; Menelaus and Helen reign over Laconia.

The origins of Helen's myth date back to the Mycenaean age.^[8] The first record of her name appears in the poems of Homer, but scholars assume that such myths invented or received by the Mycenaean Greeks made their way to Homer. Her mythological birthplace was the Sparta of the Age of Heroes, which features prominently in the canon of Greek myth: in later ancient Greek memory, the Mycenaean Bronze Age became the age of the Greek heroes. The kings, queens, and heroes of the Trojan Cycle are often related to the gods, since mythic origins gave stature to the Greeks' heroic ancestors. The fall of Troy came to represent a fall from an illustrious heroic age, remembered for centuries in oral tradition before being written down.^[9] Recent archaeological excavations in Greece suggest that modern-day Laconia was a distinct territory in the Late Bronze Age, while the poets narrate that it was a rich kingdom. Archaeologists have unsuccessfully looked for a Mycenaean palatial complex buried beneath present-day Sparta.^[10] An important Mycenaean site at the Menelaion was destroyed by c. 1200 BC, and most other Mycenaean sites in Lakonia also disappear. There is a shrinkage from fifty sites to fifteen in the early twelfth century, and then to fewer in the eleventh century.^[11]

Life[link]

Birth[link]

Leda and the Swan by Cesare da Sesto (c. 1506–1510, Wilton). The artist has been intrigued by the idea of Helen's unconventional birth; she and Clytemnestra are shown emerging from one egg; Castor and Pollux from another.

In most sources, including the Iliad and the Odyssey, Helen is the daughter of Zeus and Leda, the wife of the Spartan king Tyndareus.^[12] Euripides' play Helen, written in the late 5th century BC, is the earliest source to report the most familiar account of Helen's birth: that, although her putative father was Tyndareus, she was actually Zeus' daughter. In the form of a swan, the king of gods was chased by an eagle, and sought refuge with Leda. The swan gained her affection, and the two mated. Leda then produced an egg, from which Helen emerged.^[13] The First Vatican Mythographer introduces the notion that two eggs came from the union: one containing Castor and Pollux; one with Helen and Clytemnestra. Nevertheless, the same author earlier states that Helen, Castor and Pollux were produced from a single egg.^[14] Pseudo-Apollodorus states that Leda had intercourse with both Zeus and Tyndareus the night she conceived Helen.^[15]

On the other hand, in the Cypria, one of the Cyclic Epics, Helen was the daughter of Zeus and the goddess Nemesis.^[16] The date of the Cypria is uncertain, but it is generally thought to preserve traditions that date back to at least the 7th century BC. In the Cypria, Nemesis did not wish to mate with Zeus. She therefore changed shape into various animals as she attempted to flee Zeus, finally becoming a goose. Zeus also transformed himself into a goose and mated with Nemesis, who produced an egg from which Helen was born.^[17] Presumably, in the Cypria, this egg was somehow transferred to Leda.^[18] Later sources state either that it was brought to Leda by a shepherd who discovered it in a grove in Attica, or that it was dropped into her lap by Hermes.^[19]

Asclepiades^{[disambiguation needed ]} and Pseudo-Eratosthenes related a similar story, except that Zeus and Nemesis became swans instead of geese.^[20] Timothy Gantz has suggested that the tradition that Zeus came to Leda in the form of a swan derives from the version in which Zeus and Nemesis transformed into birds.^[21]

Pausanias states that in the middle of the 2nd century AD, the remains of an egg-shell, tied up in ribbons, were still suspended from the roof of a temple on the Spartan acropolis. People believed that this was "the famous egg that legend says Leda brought forth". Pausanias traveled to Sparta to visit the sanctuary, dedicated to Hilaeira and Phoebe, in order to see the relic for himself.^[22]

Abduction by Theseus and youth[link]

Theseus pursuing a woman, probably Helen. Side A from an Attic red-figure bell-krater, c. 440–430 BC (Louvre, Paris).

Two Athenians, Theseus and Pirithous, thought that since they were both sons of Gods, both should have divine wives; they thus pledged to help each other abduct two daughters of Zeus. Theseus chose Helen, and Pirithous vowed to marry Persephone, the wife of Hades. Theseus took Helen and left her with his mother Aethra or his associate Aphidnus at Aphidnae or Athens. Theseus and Pirithous then traveled to the underworld, the domain of Hades, to kidnap Persephone. Hades pretended to offer them hospitality and set a feast, but, as soon as the pair sat down, snakes coiled around their feet and held them there. Helen's abduction caused an invasion of Athens by Castor and Pollux, who captured Aethra in revenge, and returned their sister to Sparta.^[23]

In most accounts of this event, Helen was quite young; Hellanicus of Lesbos said she was seven years old and Diodorus makes her ten years old.^[24] On the other hand, Stesichorus said that Iphigeneia was the daughter of Theseus and Helen, which obviously implies that Helen was of childbearing age.^[25] In most sources, Iphigeneia is the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, but Duris of Samos and other writers followed Stesichorus' account.^[26]

Ovid's Heroides give us an idea of how ancient and, in particular, Roman authors imagined Helen in her youth: she is presented as a young princess wrestling naked in the palaestra; an image alluding to a part of girls' physical education in classical (and not in Mycenaean) Sparta. Sextus Propertius imagines Helen as a girl who practices arms and hunts with her brothers:^[27]

[...] or like Helen, on the sands of Eurotas, between Castor and Pollux, one to be victor in boxing, the other with horses: with naked breasts she carried weapons, they say, and did not blush with her divine brothers there.

Suitors of Helen[link]

When it was time for Helen to marry, many kings and princes from around the world came to seek her hand, bringing rich gifts with them, or sent emissaries to do so on their behalf. During the contest, Castor and Pollux had a prominent role in dealing with the suitors, although the final decision was in the hands of Tyndareus.^[28] Menelaus, her future husband, did not attend but sent his brother, Agamemnon, to represent him.

There are three available and not entirely consistent lists of suitors, compiled by Pseudo-Apollodorus (31 suitors), Hesiod (11 suitors), and Hyginus (36 suitors), for a total of 45 distinct names. There are only fragments from Hesiod's poem, so his list would have contained more. Achilles' absence from the lists is conspicuous, but Hesiod explains that he was too young to take part in the contest.^[29] Taken together, the list of suitors matches well with the captains in the Catalog of Ships from the Iliad; however, some of the names may have been placed in the list of Helen's suitors simply because they went to Troy. It is not unlikely that relatives of a suitor may have joined the war.

Six Suitors listed in all three sources^[30]

• Ajax - Son of Telamon. Led 12 ships from Salamis to Troy. Commits suicide there.
• Elephenor - Son of Chalcodon. Led 50 ships to Troy and died there
• Menelaus - Son of Atreus. Led 60 ships from Sparta to Troy. He returned home to Sparta with Helen.
• Menestheus - Son of Peteos. Led 50 ships from Athens to Troy. He returned to Athens after the war.
• Odysseus - Son of Laertes. Led 12 ships from Ithaca to Troy. He returned home after 10 years of wandering the seas.
• Protesilaus - Son of Iphicles. Led 40 ships from Phylace to Troy. He was the first Greek to die in battle at the hands of Hector.

Nineteen Suitors listed by both Apollodorus and Hyginus

• Agapenor - Son of Ancaeus, King of Arcadia. Takes 60 ships of men to Troy. Returns home.
• Ajax (AKA Ajax the Lesser or Locrian Ajax) - Son of Oileus. Led 40 ships to Troy, drowned on the way home when Poseidon split the rock he was on.
• Amphimachus - Son of Cteatus. With Polyxenus and Thalpius, he led 40 ships from Elis to Troy. Killed by Hector.
• Antilochus - Son of Nestor. Went with his father and 90 ships to Troy. Killed in battle while protecting his father from Memnon.
• Ascalaphus - Son of Ares and King of Orchemenus. Led 30 ships to Troy. Killed in battle by Deiphobus.
• Diomedes - Son of Tydeus. Diomedes was one of the Epigoni and King of Argos. He led 80 ships to Troy. His wife took a lover and Diomedes lost his kingdom, so after the war he settled in Italy.
• Eumelus - Son of Admetus and King of Pherae. Led 11 ships to Troy.
• Eurypylus - Son of Euaemon. Led 40 ships from Thessaly to Troy.
• Leonteus - Son of Coronos. With Polypoetes he led 40 ships of the Lapiths to Troy.
• Machaon - Son of Asclepius, brother of Podalirius. An Argonaut and physician. Led 30 ships. Killed in battle by Eurypylus (the son of Telephus).
• Meges - Son of Phyleus. Led 40 ships to Troy.
• Patroclus - Son of Menoetius. His younger cousin Achilles went with him to Troy. Killed by Hector.
• Peneleus - Son of Hippalcimus. An Argonaut. He went with the Boetian force of 50 ships to Troy. Killed in battle by Eurypylus (the son of Telephus).
• Philoctetes - Son of Poeas. Led 7 ships from Thessaly to Troy, he was an archer and killed Paris.
• Podalirius - Son of Asclepius, brother of Machaon. A physician. After the war he founded a city in Caria.
• Polypoetes - Son of Pirithous. With Leonteus, he led 40 ships of the Lapiths to Troy.
• Polyxenus - Son of Agasthenes. With Amphimachus, and Thalpius, he led 40 ships from Elis to Troy.
• Sthenelus - Son of Capaneus. One of the Epigoni, he went with Diomedes to Troy.
• Thalpius - Son of Eurytus. With Amphimachus and Polyxenus, he led 40 ships from Elis to Troy.