Menelaus
In Greek mythology Menelaus, king of Sparta, was the son of Atreus and the
husband of Helena of Paris
carried off Helen and much of his treasure to Troy, Menelaus and
his brother Agamemnon led the army of
Greek princes that won the Trojan
war and recovered Helen. On the return voyage, Menelaus lost
most of his ships and was driven to Egypt. There, in one version of
the story, he rescued Helen, who had been brought there by Hermes
while the Greeks and Trojans were fighting over a phantom of her.
Menelaus and Helen achieved immortality at their deaths. Menelaus
appears in the Iliad and
Odyssey, in the plays of
Aeschylus and Euripides, and in many
other literary works.