Menelaus

Who He Is

Menelaus is the offended husband, brother of Agamemnon, and the man for whom, as Achilles says in the first book, the Achaeans came to Troy. He is fair-haired Menelaus, whom the poem calls Zeus-nurtured, and he struggles with the pain of one who has suffered the harm and the caution of one who knows his own limit. He faces Paris in the duel of Book III, is wounded by an arrow that breaks the truce, almost spares a suppliant and is dissuaded by his brother, yields to Hector, guards the body of Patroclus, and calls Ajax when he needs him. The poem shows him, more than as a commander, as someone who says what he wants and why.

Trajectory

In Book II, Agamemnon summons the chiefs to the sacrifice, and Menelaus comes without being invited, because he knows his brother's concerns.

In Book III, Menelaus sees Paris in front of the Trojans and rejoices like a lion that finds its prey, because he intends to punish the guilty one. He leaps from the chariot in full armor, and Paris retreats. When the proposal of the duel is made, Menelaus speaks as the offended party: the pain reaches above all his spirit, and it is already time for Achaeans and Trojans to separate, because many evils have been suffered on account of his quarrel and Alexander's wrongdoing. He accepts that one of the two should die and demands that Priam himself, and not the sons, swear the pact, because the minds of the young waver and the old man looks both before and after.

In the duel, Menelaus's spear pierces the shield and the cuirass and tears the tunic, but Paris bends and escapes. The sword breaks on the crest of the helmet, and Menelaus cries out to Zeus that no god is more ruinous. Earlier, in his prayer, the motive he gave to Zeus was not the loss of Helen, but the violation of hospitality: that he be allowed to punish Alexander, so that men to come will tremble at doing evil to the host who offers friendship. He seizes Paris by the helmet and drags him, but Aphrodite breaks the strap, and the helmet comes away empty. Menelaus then moves through the ranks like a beast, and no Trojan shows himself to him. Agamemnon declares the victory.

In Book IV, the arrow of Pandarus, deflected by Athena, wounds Menelaus where the belt joins the cuirass. Agamemnon, groaning, blames himself, and it is Menelaus who first recovers his composure: he tells his brother to take heart and not to frighten the army, because the arrow stopped at the belt, the band, and the girdle. His concern is for the effect of the fright on the Achaeans. Machaon removes the arrow and applies the medicines.

In Book VI, with Adrastus alive before him, Menelaus, persuaded by the ransom the Trojan offers, was about to send him to the ships, when Agamemnon arrives and rebukes him. The counsel turns his spirit, and he pushes Adrastus away with his hand. In Book VII, he rises groaning, censures the Achaeans who keep silent, and begins to arm himself to face Hector, and Agamemnon holds him back: Hector is the better man, and even Achilles shuddered to face him. Menelaus yields, and the attendants take his armor off him.

In Book X, Menelaus also does not sleep, out of fear of what may happen to those who crossed the sea because of him. Agamemnon sends him to summon the chiefs, addressing each by his father's name and without arrogance. When Diomedes goes to choose a companion for the spying, Menelaus is among those who offer themselves, and the narrator says that Agamemnon, in setting the rule, feared for him.

In Book XI, Menelaus hears Odysseus call three times and calls Ajax, and he pulls Odysseus out of the crowd by the hand, while Ajax crushes the Trojans like a river in flood.

In Book XIII, after killing Pisander and treading on his chest, Menelaus speaks to the Trojans and to Zeus: the Trojans took his lawful wife and many goods, though they were welcomed by her, and now they want to throw fire on the ships, not fearing the wrath of Zeus, protector of guests, who will one day destroy their city. He also says that of everything there is abundance, of sleep, of love, of song and dance, but that the Trojans never tire of combat.

In Book XV, Menelaus, from behind, pierces the shoulder of Dolops. Then he asks Antilochus, the youngest and swiftest, to attack.

In Book XVII, Menelaus sees Patroclus fall and stands over the body with spear and shield, like a cow of first calving over her calf. Euphorbus, son of Panthous, orders him to withdraw and tells him he will pay for the brother he killed, for the widow, and for the parents. Menelaus prays to Zeus and pierces him through the neck. When Apollo, in the form of Mentes, urges Hector on, Menelaus weighs whether to stay or retreat, and concludes that whoever fights a man whom a god honors invites disaster, and that no one will censure him for yielding. He withdraws slowly, like a lion driven from the sheepfold, and goes to call Ajax.

Later, before Athena, who appears to him in the form of Phoenix, he says he would like to defend the body, because Patroclus, dying, touched his heart. He kills Podes. Sent by Ajax to look for Antilochus, he leaves reluctantly, like a weary lion, and asks the Ajaxes and Meriones to remember Patroclus's sweetness. He tells Antilochus to run to Achilles and lifts the body with Meriones.

In Book XIX, he is among the chiefs who, after the assembly, try to console Achilles.

In Book XXIII, Menelaus competes in the chariot race and finishes third. Antilochus, who had the slowest horses, enters a narrow pass where only one chariot can pass, and Menelaus, to avoid the collision, slackens and insults him. Afterward, resentful, he accuses Antilochus of tarnishing his honor and demands that he swear by Poseidon that he did not hinder him on purpose. Antilochus returns the prize, and Menelaus, appeased, in turn yields the mare, so that it may be known that his heart was never proud or hard.

Themes Embodied

Menelaus embodies Honor and Reputation of the offended man who asks for redress, and of what is owed to him as a violated host. He embodies War in its personal cause, and he pays its price in the body of his brother and his companions. He embodies Compassion and Charity in the episode of Adrastus, whom he was going to spare and whom his brother persuades him not to spare, and in the sweetness of Patroclus that he remembers.

Menelaus is the character who has the personal cause of the war and, at several moments, is the one who yields. He yields to his brother in the case of Adrastus, to Hector in Book VII, to the god who honors Hector in Book XVII, and to Antilochus in Book XXIII, and in each case the text gives a reason: the brother restrains him, the god honors the other, the young man has little judgment. In Book III, the prayer he makes to Zeus does not ask for Helen back; it asks for an example for men to come, that one does not do evil to the host. Two readings coexist for this choice of reason: it is his strongest motive, because what moves him is the violation of the pact of hospitality, or it is the motive that can be spoken aloud to a god. In Book XVII, the same man who backed away before the god stands over the body of Patroclus moaning like a cow of first calving, and the image is that of a mother, not that of a commander.

Relationships

• Agamemnon: the more powerful brother, who protects him, restrains him, and blames himself when he is wounded.
• Helen: the abducted wife, whose return he demands.
• Paris: the adversary who wronged him and whom Aphrodite rescues.
• Hector: the Trojan champion before whom he yields, in Book VII and in Book XVII.
• Ajax: the companion whom he runs to summon for help, in Book XI and in Book XVII.
• Odysseus: the companion whom he rescues from the crowd in Book XI.
• Nestor: the father of Antilochus, whose son overtakes him in Book XXIII.
• Patroclus: the dead man whom Menelaus protects like a mother and whose sweetness he remembers.
• Euphorbus: the Trojan whom he kills in Book XVII.
• Antilochus: the young son of Nestor, who overtakes him in Book XXIII and returns the prize to him.