Menelaus

Also known as: godlike Menelaus · Family: The Greeks · Role: warrior · First appears: Book IV · Part 1

After the chariot race in Book IV, Menelaus rejoiced in victory and received from Thetis a golden cup that had belonged to Eetion. In Book VI he summoned the Achaean men and urged them to abandon the war and return home, but Diomedes rejected his counsel and called the warriors to prepare for battle. Menelaus promised Hermione in marriage to Neoptolemus if he came to aid the Argives and Menelaus won his way home. In Book VI he wounded Deiphobus, who fled; in Book XI he killed Archelochus.

At Troy in Book XIII, the Argives spared Antenor and his household because Antenor had once sheltered Menelaus and Odysseus. Menelaus found Deiphobus in Helen’s bower and killed him, then tried to strike Helen, but Aphrodite knocked the sword from his hand and turned his anger away. His brother Agamemnon also restrained his fury, and Menelaus heeded him and spared Helen.

In Book XIV the Argives sacked Troy, and Menelaus led Helen out of the city and back to his side. When she begged forgiveness, he told her, “No more remember past griefs: seal them up / Hid in thine heart.” They renewed their loving union. Earlier, he had said that Helen was taken from him while he was away, and that grief over her and their child had driven him to attempt suicide.