Menelaus
Frieze-Dennison Vergil
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Menelaum Proper-name noun: masculine genitive plural, Proper-name noun: masculine accusative singular of Menelaus
- Son of Atreus, brother of Agamemnon, and husband of Helen, who eloped from him with Paris, Cic. Brut. 13, 50; id. Rep. 5, 9, 14; Auct. Her. 3, 21, 34; Ov. M. 13, 203; id. A. A. 2, 359.—
- B Transf., a cuckold.— Jestingly of M. Lucullus, whose wife was seduced by C. Memmius, Cic. Att. 1, 18, 3.—
- II Menelaus Marathenus, a Greek rhetorician, from the old Phoenician city of Marathus, Cic. Brut. 26, 100.—
- III Menelai portus, a city with a port of the same name on the shore of the Mediterranean, between Cyrene and Egypt, Nep. Ages. 8, 6; also called Menelaita urbs, Edict. Justin. 13, 9, 2.—Hence, adj.: Mĕnĕlāĕus, a, um, of Menelaus, Prop. 2, 15 (3, 7), 14.
Μενέλαος, Μενέλεως, (or Μενέλεις), a son of Atreus, and younger brother of Agamemnon and Anaxibia. He was king of Lacedaemon, and married to the beautiful Helen, by whom he was the father of Hermione and Megapenthes (Hom. Il. 7.470, 10.37, Od. 4.11, &100.11.469; comp. Agamemnon). When his wife Helen had been carried off by Paris, Menelaus and Odvsseus set out to Troy to claim her back. Meneiaus was hospitably treated by Antenor (Hom. Il. 3.206), but the journey was of no avail, and the Trojan Antimachus even advised his fellow-citizens to kill Menelaus and Odysseus (11.139, &c.). In order, therefore, to avenge the rape of Helen, and to punish the offender, Menelaus and his brother resolved to march against Troy with all the forces that Greece could muster (1.159, 2.589, 3.351, &c.). The two brothers, in their travels through Greece to rouse the chiefs to avenge the insult offered to a Greek prince, also visited Odysseus in Ithaca (Hom. Od. 24.115), along with whom Menelaus is said to have consulted the Delphic oracle about the expedition against Troy; and at Delphi he dedicated the necklace of Helen to Athena Pronoea (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1166). Hereupon Menelaus in sixty ships led the inhabitants of Lacedaemon, Pharis, Sparta, Messe, Bryseiae, Amyclae, Helos, Laas, and Oetylus, against Troy (Il. 2.581, &c.). In Troas he was under the special protection of Hera and Athena, and one of the most gallant heroes (4.8, 129, 5.715), who slew many Trojans, such as Scamandrius (5.50), Pylaemenus (5.576), Peisander (13.614, &c.), Dolops (15.541), Thoas (16.311), Euphorbus (17.45), and Podes (17.575).
We shall pass over his minor exploits, and mention only his engagement with Paris. When Menelaus saw his chief enemy stepping forth from the Trojan ranks, he rejoiced like a lion at the sight of a stag, and leaped from his chariot to attack him (Il. 3.27, &c.); but Paris took to flight, until, encouraged by Hector, he challenged Menelaus to decide the contest for the possession of Helen and the treasures by single combat (3.97, &c.). Menelaus accepted the challenge, and his spear penetrated the shield of Paris, but did not wound him. Menelaus thereupon drew his sword, which, however, broke on the shield of his opponent. He then seized him by the helmet, and dragged him to the camp of the Achaeans. But Aphrodite loosened the helmet and wrapped her favourite in a cloud, in which he escaped from his enemy (3.325, &c., 4.12, &c.). At the funeral games of Patroclus, Menelaus fought with Antilochus in the chariot race, but voluntarily gave up the second prize, and was satisfied with the third (23.293, 401, 516-609). Menelaus also was one of the heroes concealed in the wooden horse (Od. 4.280; comp. Verg. A. 2.264); and, along with Odysseus, he hastened to the house of Deiphobus, as soon as the town was taken (Od. 8.518; Verg. A. 6.523). After the destruction of Troy, he advised the assembled Achaeans to return home, which involved him in a dispute with his brother (Od. 3.141, &c.). He was among the first that sailed away from Troy. accompanied by his wife Helen and Nestor (Od 3.276). When near the coast of Attica, his steersman Phrontis died, and Menelaus was detained some time by his burial. When he reached Maleia, Zeus sent a storm, in which part of his ships were thrown on the coast of Crete, and five others and Menelaus himself landed in Egypt (iii, 278; comp. Paus. 10.25.2). After this he wandered about for eight years in the eastern parts of the Mediterranean, where he visited Cyprus, Phoenicia, the Ethiopians, the Erembians, and Libya. These Eastern people were not so inhospitable as those in the West who were visited by Odysseus, and on his return home Menelaus brought with him a large number of presents which he had received (Od. 3.301, 312, 4.90, 128, 131, 228, 617; comp. Hdt. 2.113, 116). His last stay on his wanderings was in the island of Pharos, near the coast of Egypt, where he remained twenty days (Od. 4.355), being kept back by the gods. Hunger already began to affect his companions, and his steersman Canobus died (Strab. p. 801). Eidothea, the daughter of Proteus, advised him to seize her father, who would reveal to him the means of returning home. Proteus, when caught, told him that he must first return to Egypt and propitiate the gods with hecatombs. This Menelaus did, and having there erected a monument to his brother, whose death he learned from Proteus, he, next to Odysseus, the last of the heroes, returned home, and arrived at Sparta on the very day on which Orestes was engaged in burying Clytaemnestra and Aegisthus (Od. 4.365; comp. 1.286, 3.257, 311). Henceforward he lived with Helen at Sparta in peace, comfort, and wealth, and his palace shone in its splendour like the sun or the moon (4.45, 72, 80; comp. Paus. 3.14.6). At the time when Telemachus came to him to inquire after his father, Menelaus was just solemnising the marriage of his daughter Hermione with Neoptolemus, and of his son Megapenthes with a daughter of Alector (4.1, &c.). According to the Homeric poems Menelaus was a man of an athletic figure; he spoke little, but what he said was always impressive; he was brave and courageous, but milder than Agamemnon, intelligent and hospitable. According to the prophecy of Proteus, Menelaus and Helen were not to die, but the gods were to conduct them to Elysium (4.561); but according to a later tradition, he and Helen went to the Taurians, where they were sacrificed by Iphigeneia to Artemis (Ptolem. Heph. 4). Menelaus was worshipped as a hero at Therapne, where also his tomb and that of Helen were shown (Paus. 3.19.9). On the chest of Cypselus he was represented at the moment when, after the taking of Troy, he was on the point of killing Helen. (Paus. 5.18.1; comp. Millingen, Inedit. Monum. 1.32). [Helena.] [L.S]
(Μενέλαος), literary.
1. Of Anaea in Caria, is called by Stephanus Byzantinus (s. v. Ἀναία) a peripatetic philosopher, and a great historian, but is otherwise unknown.
2. Of Maratho in Phoenicia, a Greek rhetorician, whose assistance C. Sempronius Gracchus was said to have used in composing his speeches. (Cic. Brat. 26,)
3. Of Aegae, an epic poet, who among other works which are not specified, wrote an epic poem, Thebais (Θηβαίς), consisting, according to Suidas, of twelve, and according to Eudocia, of thirteen books. As Longinus mentioned Menelaus with praise, he must have lived before A. D. 273, for in that year Longinus died (Waltz, Rhet. Graec. vi. p. 93; Ruhnken, Dissert. de Vit. et Script. Longini, 30, &c. ed. Toupius). The first five books of this epic are referred to by Stephanus Byzantinus (s. vv. Τέμμιξ, Ὑρμίνη, Ἀμφιγένεια, Λύκαια, Εὒτρησις), but no fragments of any importance have come down to us. [L.S]
(Μενέλαος), a Greek mathematician, a native of Alexandria.
Menelaus is mentioned by Pappus, Proclus, and Ptolemaeus, who, in his Magna Syntaxis (p. 170), says that he made some astronomical observations at Rome in the first year of the emperor Trajan (A. D. 98). He is probably the same with the Menelaus introduced by Plutarch in his dialogue De Facie in Orbe Lunae, p. 930. Works μικρὸς ἀστρονόμος, or μικρὸς ἀστρονομούμενος
He is the author of a treatise in three books, on the Sphere, which is comprised in the mathematical collection called μικρὸς ἀστρονόμος, or μικρὸς ἀστρονομούμενος. Editions
A Latin translation of the treatise on the Sphere was published at Paris in 1644; and it was also published by Marinus Mersennus in his Synopsis Mathematica, Paris, 1644. This edition contained many additions and interpolations. A more correct edition was published at Oxford by Halley, a reprint of which, with a preface by G. Costard, appeared in 1758. On the Quantity and Distinction of Mixed Bodies.
Besides his work on the Sphere, Menelaus wrote a treatise On the Quantity and Distinction of Mixed Bodies. Translations
Both works were translated into Syriac and Arabic. Further Information
Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iv. pp. 16, 23. [C.P.M]
a pupil of Stephanus, was the sculptor of a marble group in the villa Ludovisi at Rome, which bears the inscription ΜΕΝΕΛΑΟΣ ΣΤΕΦΑΝΟΥ ΜΑΘΗΤΗΣ ΕΠΟΙΕΙ. The group, which consists of a male and female figure, the size of life, has been differently explained. It used to be taken to refer to the story of Papirius and his mother. (Aul. Gel. 1.23.) Thiersch maintains that it is impossible not to recognise the Roman matron in the female figure, and in both the expression of maternal and filial love; and he supposes that it represents some scene from the family life of the Caesars, probably Octavia and Marcellus, "Tu Marcellus eris, manibus date lilia plenis," &c. (Epochen, pp. 295, 296.) Winckelmann at first took it for Phaedra and Hippolytus (Geschichte d. Kunst, Vorrede, § 5); but he afterwards explained it as representing the recognition of Orestes by Electra (bk. 11.2.29), and this supposition has been generally adopted. Thiersch l.c.) refers the work to the Augustan age. [Compare Stephanus.] [P.S]
MENELA´US (Μενέλαος, Strab. 18. p. 803; Steph. B. s. v.: Eth. Menelaites), was a town of the Delta, situated to SE. of the highroad between Alexandreia and Hermopolis, near the Canopic arm of the Nile. It derived its name from Menelaus, a brother of Ptolemy Lagus, and attained such importance as to confer the title of Menelaites upon the Canopic branch of the river. (Ptol. 4.5.9; Strab. ib. p. 801.)
[W.B.D](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.