Menelaos
Family: Greek · Role: host wronged by Alexander · First appears: Book 2 · §108–114
Life events
- Alexander's attendants sought sanctuary and accused him of carrying off Helen and wronging Menelaos.(Book 2 · §108–114 · 📍 the temple of Heracles)
- With: Alexander (son of Priam)
- “Accordingly the attendants of Alexander, having heard of the custom which existed about the temple, ran away from him, and sitting down as suppliants of the god, accused Alexander, because they desired to do him hurt, telling the whole tale how things were about Helen and about the wrong done to Menelaos;”
- The Hellenes besieged Ilion and took the city after the Teucrians said Helen and the stolen wealth were in Egypt.(Book 2 · §115–120 · 📍 Ilion)
- With: Alexander (son of Priam) Helen
- “The Hellenes however thought that they were being mocked by them and besieged the city, until at last they took it”
- Menelaos reached Proteus in Egypt and received Helen unharmed and all his wealth.(Book 2 · §115–120 · 📍 Memphis)
- Menelaos sacrificed two native children, became abhorred, and escaped his pursuers by ship to Libya.(Book 2 · §115–120 · 📍 Libya)
- “After this, when it was known that he had done so, he became abhorred, and being pursued he escaped and got away in his ships to Libya”
- The Mytilenians and Athenians fought over Sigeion, each maintaining strongholds and contesting its ownership.(Book 5 · §93–94 · 📍 Achilleion)
- With: Hegesistratos Helen
- “the Mytilenians and Athenians carried on war for a long time, having their strongholds respectively at Achilleion and at Sigeion, the one side demanding that the place be restored to them, and the Athenians on the other hand not admitting this demand”
- The Cretans consulted the oracle and were told not to assist Hellas because of Minos’s anger.(Book 7 · §163–169 · 📍 Delphi)
Book 2 · §108–114
- with Alexander (son of Priam) (interaction) “accused Alexander, because they desired to do him hurt, telling the whole tale how things were about Helen and about the wrong done to Menelaos”
- married with Helen (The chapter's account identifies Helen as the woman Alexander carried off and Menelaos as the wronged host; it describes her as the host's wife.) “There hath come a stranger, a Teucrian by race, who hath done in Hellas an unholy deed; for he hath deceived the wife of his own host, and is come hither bringing with him this woman herself and very much wealth, having been carried out of his way by winds to thy land.”
Book 2 · §115–120
- with Helen (Helen is described as having been raped; this passage does not explicitly state that Menelaos and Helen were married.) “After the rape of Helen there came indeed, they said, to the Teucrian land a large army of Hellenes to help Menelaos;”
- with Proteus (Proteus safeguarded Helen and Menelaos's wealth for him.) “This woman indeed and the wealth which thou hast I will not allow thee to carry away, but I shall keep them safe for the Hellene who was thy host, until he come himself and desire to carry them off to his home;”
- married with Helen (The host is Menelaos, as made clear by the surrounding account.) “For thou didst go in to the wife of thine own host; and even this was not enough for thee, but thou didst stir her up with desire and hast gone away with her like a thief.”
- with Alexander (son of Priam) (Menelaos was Alexander's host, and Alexander wronged him.) “For thou didst go in to the wife of thine own host; and even this was not enough for thee, but thou didst stir her up with desire and hast gone away with her like a thief.”
Book 5 · §93–94
- with Helen (Menelaos and the Hellenes exacted vengeance for Helen's abduction.) “as many as joined with Menelaos in exacting vengeance for the rape of Helen.”
Book 7 · §163–169
- with Minos (interaction) “because of the assistance that ye gave to Menelaos”
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Extracted from the original text of The Histories. Made with Rho MD.