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.
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.