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MENELAUS

A LEGENDARY KING OF SPARTA,

THE HUSBAND OF HELEN,

A CENTRAL FIGURE IN THE TROJAN WAR

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Menelaus was the son of the

King Atreus of Mycenae and

the Cretan Aerope. His

brother was Agamemnon. He

married Helen, daughter of

Tyndareus.

Menelaus and Helen had a

daughter, Hermione, and

some variations of the myth

suggest they had a son

Nicostrato also.

Following Tyndareus's

death, Menelaus became

king of Sparta because the

only male heirs, Castor and

Polydeuces had died and

ascended to Mount

Olympus.

Giacomo Brogi. Menelaus, marble bust. Before 1881. Rome (Vatican Museums).

Bust of Helen of Troy by Antonio Canova at Victoria and Albert Museum.

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Menelaus and Helen lived quietly in Sparta, but their

happiness was destroyed on the arrival of Paris, a Trojan

prince.

At that time,

Menelaus was in

Crete to attend the

funeral of his

uncle. Herodotus

states that during the

absence of the king,

Helen was abducted.

Other versions relate how Helen fell in love with Paris.

Sappho argues that Helen willingly left behind Menelaus

and Hermione, her nine-year-old daughter, to be with Paris.

Either way is that both escaped and sailed to Troy.

Menelaus was warned by Iris of this disgrace and he

returned to Sparta, where he summoned all the kings who

had taken the oath of Tyndareus.

The Rape of Helen by Tintoretto. Helen languishes in the corner of a land-sea battle scene. C. 1578–1579.Museo del Prado, Madrid.

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He asked his brother

Agamemnon to help him to

get Helen back from Troy.

Agamemnon then sent

several emissaries to the

Achaean kings and princes

to help retrieve Helen.

Thus began the Trojan

War.

Virtually all of

Greece took part in

attacking Troy with Menelaus.

Then Menelaus and

Ulysses went to Delphi

to consult the oracle on

expedition against Troy.

Iris, by Luca Giordano, 1684-1686.

The rock from which the Erythraean Sibyl or Herophile foretold the future.

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Menelaus took part in the expedition with sixty ships.

Menelaus fought bravely at

Troy, although he did not

occupy as important a

position as his brother

Agamemnon, who was the

commander-in-chief of the

Greek forces.

Immediately after the

landing of the Greek,

Menelaus and Ulysses

went as ambassadors to the

City of Troy to

reclaim Helen and

the treasures that

Paris had taken.

From left to right, Agamemnon, Talthybios and Epeios, identified by inscriptions in Ionian script ("Agamemnon" is written in retrograde script). Fragment of a relief, maybe the armrest from the throne of a cult statue. May represent Agamemnon's initiation to the Samothracean mystery cult. Marble, Greek archaic artwork, ca. 560 BC. From Samothrace.

Portion of the legendary walls of Troy (VII), identified as the site of the Trojan War (ca. 1200 BC)

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But the Trojans

rejected every offer of

compromise,

providing a casus belli

for the Trojan War.

In the third book of Iliad,

Menelaus challenges Paris

to a duel for Helen's return

and Helen would be for

the winner. Menelaus

beated Paris, but before he

could kill him and claim

victory Aphrodite hid him

under a cloud and took

him inside the walls of

Troy.

Scene of the Trojan War, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.

Tabula iliaca representing the fight of Menelaus and Paris for Helen: Menelaus (hand on the left) grabs Paris (with Phrygian cap and round shield) by the helmet to drag him to the Greek camp. Marble, 1st century BC. From Rome? Stored in the Staatliche Museeen of Berlin, Antikensammlung.

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Kalliades as potter (signed), Douris as painter (signed). Menelaus (centre-left) pursues Paris (centre-right) as Aphrodite (left) and Artemis (right) watch on. Side A from an Attic red-figure kylix, ca. 490–480 BC. From Capua.

Antalya Archaeological Museum. Ancient Roman sarcophagus of Aurelia Botania Demetria ( 2nd century AD ): Aphrodite is concealing Paris who is defeated by Menelaos. Odysseus is looking at the szene.

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In the fourth book Zeus sent Athena to break the truce;

Athena inspired the Trojan Pandarus to kill Menelaus.

Pandarus sent an arrow and wounded him slightly in the

abdomen. From that moment the battle resumed between

both sides.

Menelaus killed

Scamandrius, son

of Strophius.

Although he

fought with

Aeneas, did not

accomplish

anything. In the

evening, Hector

challenged some

of the Greeks to fight against him, Menelaus accepted the

challenge, but Agamemnon and the other kings disuaded

him.

During the fighting around the ships, Menelaus wounded

Helenus and then killed Pisandro, Hyperenor, Dolops and

finally Thoas.

Menelaos and Hector fighting over the body of Euphorbos. Plate, Middle Wild Goat style, made in Rhodes ca. 600 BC. From Kameiros.

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In the seventeenth book

Homer described

Menelaus with an

enormous aristeia, as the

hero retrieved the corpse

of Patroclus from the

battlefield. He slayed

Podes and Euphorbus

there. In the twentythird book of the Iliad he bravely

competed in the funeral games of Patroclus.

In the events after the Iliad when Paris was killed by an

arrow, Menelaus insulted the corpse. He was among the

warriors who were hidden in the wooden horse.

Menelaus and Meriones lifting Patroclus' corpse on a cart while Odysseus (on the right, wearing the pilos hat and a shield) looks on. Alabaster urn, Etruscan artwork, 2nd century BC. From Volterra. Stored in the Museo Nazionale Archeologico Nazionale in Florence.

Depiction of the story of the Trojan horse in the art of Gandhara. British Museum.

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Finally Menelaus killed

Deiphobus, who had

married Helen after the

death of Paris. He also

intended to kill Helen.

Menelaus took Helen by

the hair and dragged her

to the boats. But struck by

her beauty he forgave her

and Helen was saved.

Helen on the Ramparts of Troy by Gustave Moreau, depict an expressionless Helen; a blank or anguished face. Late 19th century

Menelaus Painter. Menelaus intends to strike Helen; struck by her beauty, he drops his swords. A flying Eros and Aphrodite (on the left) watch the scene. Detail of an Attic red-figure crater, ca. 450–440 BC, found in Gnathia (now Egnazia, Italy).

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After the victory, Menelaus started on his journey back to

Sparta, while his brother stayed in Troy.

When he arrived at Cape Malea, a storm dragged him to

Crete, where several of their boats capsized. From Crete he

went to Egypt where he spent five years and he got a lot of

richess.

Another version said

that Hermes carried the real

Helen to Egypt, giving her to

King Proteus. She spent the

ten years of the Trojan War

there, while her phantom

went to Troy. When

Menelaus arrived to Egypt,

he was reunited with Helen.

In order to discover what he had to do to obtain fair winds

for the journey, Menelaus had to catch Proteus, a shape-

shifting sea god. He described the sacrifices necessary to

appease the gods and gain safe passage across the sea.

Der höllische Proteus. Erasmus Francisi (1627-1694) was the author of the book. 1695.

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While Menelaus' ships were becalmed on the island of

Pharos; Menelaus eventually returned safely to Lacedaemon,

where he and Helen settled

back into married life.

At the end of his life Menelaus was transported to Elysium.

According to Euripides'

Helen, after Menelaus

died, he was reunited

with Helen on the Isle of

the Blessed.

Telemachus visited Menelaos, ca. 1886.

"Elisium" by Léon Bakst (1866-1924) from 1906.

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In the time of Pausanias it was possible to see the house

where Menelaus had lived.

Ruins of Menelaion in Sparta.

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Ligazóns:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esparta

http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Menelaus

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antonio_Canova-Helen_of_Troy-Victoria_and_Albert_Museum.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Luca_Giordano_012.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rock-of-Sibyl2.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Greece_scene_of_the_trojan_war_vase.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Troy1.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tabula_iliaca_Musei_Capitolini_MC0316.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Relief_Samothrace_Louvre_Ma697.jpg?uselang=es

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tabula_Iliaca_Antikensammlung_Berlin.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brogi,_Giacomo_%281822-1881%29_-_n._4140_-_Roma_-_Vaticano_-_Menelao_-

_Busto_in_marmo.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IndoGreeksTrojanHorse.jpg?uselang=es

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Telemachos_im_Palast_von_Menelaos.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antalya_Museum_-_Sarkophag_5b_Aphrodite_verbirgt_Paris.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plate_Euphorbos_BM_GR1860.4-4.1.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Menelaos_Paris_Louvre_G115.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Helen_Menelaus_Louvre_G424.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tintoretto_Rape_of_Helen.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Menelaion.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Patroclus_corpse_MAN_Firenze.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karamenderes_River

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hoellischer_Proteus.jpg?uselang=es

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:File-Elisium_by_Leon_Bakst_2.jpg?uselang=es

Third Classical Culture from IES de POIO. Course 2010-11.