Menelaus

Also known as: Menelaus son of Atreus / son of Atreus · Family: Achaean · Role: king and commander · First appears: BOOK II

🌐 Also appears in: Greek Mythology — A Family Orrery (as Menelaus) · The Odyssey (as Menelaus) · Greek Tragedy — The Same Myth, Three Voices (as Menelaus)

In Book II, Menelaus joins Agamemnon because he knows his brother is busy. In Book III, after the Trojans and Achaeans swear a covenant over the duel’s outcome and Helen’s fate, Menelaus overpowers Paris in single combat until Venus intervenes; Agamemnon proclaims him victor and demands Helen’s return with compensation. Menelaus is married to Helen, and Book III also recalls his meetings with Antenor, Idomeneus and Ulysses.

In Book IV, Pandarus breaks the oaths and wounds Menelaus with an arrow; Machaon removes it and treats him while the fighting resumes. In Book VI, Menelaus takes Adrestus alive but thrusts him away after his plea for mercy, and Agamemnon kills him. At daybreak in Book VII, Menelaus is among those present when Priam’s proposal to halt the fighting for funeral rites is accepted.

In Book XIII, Menelaus kills Pisander and strips his armour. In Book XVII, he kills Euphorbus and Podes, carrying Podes’s body back to the Achaean ranks, then helps Meriones lift Patroclus’s body toward the ships under Ajax son of Telamon’s protection. In Book XXIII, after Antilochus concedes the disputed prize, Menelaus returns the mare to him.