Who He Is
Menelaus is the king of Sparta, son of Atreus, brother of Agamemnon, and husband of Helen. He returned from Troy after years of wandering through Egypt and other lands, and now lives in the palace full of the wealth he gathered. In the Odyssey, he is the host who receives Telemachus and tells him what he knows of his father. He receives him well, weeps for his friend, and reminds the young men that hospitality is a measure between haste and holding back.
Trajectory
In Book III, Nestor says Menelaus reached Lesbos late, after Nestor and his men had left, and that he had a hateful voyage after burying the pilot Phrontis, with his ships carried off to Egypt. He arrived on the same day Orestes gave the Argives the funeral feast for Aegisthus. Nestor tells Telemachus to seek him out, because he has just come back from where no one expects to return.
In Book IV, he celebrates two weddings, that of his daughter Hermione and that of his son Megapenthes, when Telemachus arrives with Peisistratus. He rebukes the servant who wants to send them to another host, and serves them before asking who they are. He says he gathered wealth over eight years of wandering, while another, by the treachery of a wife, killed his brother, and for that reason he does not enjoy what he has.
ἧος ἐγὼ περὶ κεῖνα πολὺν βίοτον συναγείρων / ἠλώμην, τῆός μοι ἀδελφεὸν ἄλλος ἔπεφνεν / λάθρῃ, ἀνωιστί, δόλῳ οὐλομένης ἀλόχοιο· / ὣς οὔ τοι χαίρων τοῖσδε κτεάτεσσιν ἀνάσσω(4.90-93), while I wandered there gathering much wealth, another killed my brother in secret, unknown, by the treachery of a deadly wife; so I do not rule over these possessions with joy.
He weeps for all the dead of Troy, but most for one above the others, Odysseus. He hesitates between letting the boy speak and asking first, and Helen tells who he is, and Menelaus agrees. The next morning, he is indignant that weak men want to lie in the bed of a strong man, like fawns in a lion's den, and recounts what the old man of the sea told him. Held twenty days on the island of Pharos, off Egypt, because he had not offered hecatombs to the gods, he was found by the daughter of Proteus, who taught him how to catch the old man. He and three companions, covered in sealskins, seize Proteus, who turns into a lion, a serpent, a panther, a boar, water, and a tree, and who speaks only when he tires of fleeing.
ὢ πόποι, ἦ μάλα δὴ κρατερόφρονος ἀνδρὸς ἐν εὐνῇ / ἤθελον εὐνηθῆναι ἀνάλκιδες αὐτοὶ ἐόντες [...] ὣς Ὀδυσεὺς κείνοισιν ἀεικέα πότμον ἐφήσει(4.333-334, 340), alas, indeed they wanted to lie in the bed of a man of strong heart, though they themselves are weak! [...] so Odysseus will bring them an unseemly fate.
Αἰγύπτῳ μʼ ἔτι δεῦρο θεοὶ μεμαῶτα νέεσθαι / ἔσχον, ἐπεὶ οὔ σφιν ἔρεξα τεληέσσας ἑκατόμβας(4.351-352), the gods still held me in Egypt, eager to return, because I had not offered them complete hecatombs.
ἀλλʼ ἦ τοι πρώτιστα λέων γένετʼ ἠυγένειος, / αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα δράκων καὶ πάρδαλις ἠδὲ μέγας σῦς· / γίγνετο δʼ ὑγρὸν ὕδωρ καὶ δένδρεον ὑψιπέτηλον· / ἡμεῖς δʼ ἀστεμφέως ἔχομεν τετληότι θυμῷ(4.456-459), first he became a lion with a fine mane, then a serpent, a panther, and a huge boar; he became flowing water and a tree with tall leaves; but we held him fast, with enduring spirit.
Proteus tells him of Agamemnon's death, ambushed at a feast, like an ox at the manger, and of Odysseus's plight, weeping on an island, held by Calypso. He announces to Menelaus that the gods will send him to the Elysian plain, because he is Zeus's son-in-law. Menelaus returns to Egypt, makes the offerings, raises a tomb for Agamemnon, and reaches home. After Helen's account, he tells of another deed of Odysseus: inside the horse, he held the mouth of Anticlus when the voices of the wives were calling the chiefs.
τὸν δʼ οὐκ εἰδότʼ ὄλεθρον ἀνήγαγε καὶ κατέπεφνεν / δειπνίσσας, ὥς τίς τε κατέκτανε βοῦν ἐπὶ φάτνῃ(4.534-535), he led him, not knowing his ruin, and killed him after feasting him, as one kills an ox at the manger.
τὸν δʼ ἴδον ἐν νήσῳ θαλερὸν κατὰ δάκρυ χέοντα, / νύμφης ἐν μεγάροισι Καλυψοῦς, ἥ μιν ἀνάγκῃ / ἴσχει· ὁ δʼ οὐ δύναται ἣν πατρίδα γαῖαν ἱκέσθαι(4.556-558), I saw him on an island, shedding abundant tears, in the halls of the nymph Calypso, who holds him by force; and he cannot reach his native land.
ἀλλʼ Ὀδυσεὺς ἐπὶ μάστακα χερσὶ πίεζεν / νωλεμέως κρατερῇσι, σάωσε δὲ πάντας Ἀχαιούς(4.287-288), but Odysseus pressed his mouth with strong hands, without slackening, and saved all the Achaeans.
When Telemachus refuses the horses, because Ithaca has no broad tracks or meadows, Menelaus smiles, praises his lineage, and exchanges the gift for a silver mixing bowl with golden rims, the work of Hephaestus.
ἐν δʼ Ἰθάκῃ οὔτʼ ἂρ δρόμοι εὐρέες οὔτε τι λειμών· / αἰγίβοτος, καὶ μᾶλλον ἐπήρατος ἱπποβότοιο(4.605-606), in Ithaca there are neither broad tracks nor meadow; it is land for goats, and more lovely than horse pasture.
In Book VIII, in Demodocus's song, Odysseus and Menelaus go to the house of Deiphobus in the sack of Troy, and Odysseus weeps. In Book XI, Agamemnon asks Odysseus whether he has heard of Orestes, in Pylos or in Sparta, with Menelaus.
In Book XIII, Athena tells Odysseus that Telemachus is in the house of Menelaus, in plenty. In Book XIV, in the story the beggar tells Eumaeus, Odysseus appears in an ambush before Troy, commanded together with Menelaus.
In Book XV, when Telemachus asks to leave, Menelaus says he will not hold him back, because it is equally wrong to drive out a guest who does not want to leave and to hold back one who is in a hurry. He offers to wait for the meal and the gifts, and even to escort him through Hellas and Argos. Telemachus refuses, and Menelaus chooses a two-handled cup and the mixing bowl of Phedimus. When an eagle passes carrying a goose, he thinks how to answer, but Helen speaks first.
ἶσόν τοι κακόν ἐσθʼ, ὅς τʼ οὐκ ἐθέλοντα νέεσθαι / ξεῖνον ἐποτρύνει καὶ ὃς ἐσσύμενον κατερύκει. / χρὴ ξεῖνον παρεόντα φιλεῖν, ἐθέλοντα δὲ πέμπειν.(15.72-74), equal is the evil of one who urges on a guest who does not want to leave, and of one who holds back one who is in a hurry; one should love a guest who is present, and send off one who wants to go.
In Book XVII, Telemachus repeats to Penelope what Menelaus said of the suitors and what Proteus told of Odysseus. In Book XXIV, Agamemnon recalls that he went to Ithaca with Menelaus to persuade Odysseus to go to Troy, and that it took them a full month to convince him.
Themes Embodied
Menelaus embodies the Family and the Home, exile and return: he is the king who came back after years, and the poem uses him as a mirror, with his brother murdered and his wife recovered. His hospitality is measured and generous. He also embodies Loyalty and betrayal: his wealth does not gladden him, because his brother was killed by the treachery of his wife, and he would trade two thirds of it for the dead of Troy.
Menelaus speaks to Telemachus as one who knows what it costs to come home. He recounts two returns from Troy, that of Agamemnon, killed at the feast, and his own, wandering and rich, and he sets hospitality as the only rule that serves both cases. What he does not say, and the poem leaves open, is what he thinks of Helen beside him.
Relationships
- Telemachus: the guest he recognizes by his tears, to whom he gives news of his father and gifts.
- Helen: the wife who speaks in his place and with whom he lives without visible resentment.
- Odysseus: the friend he weeps for above the other dead of Troy.
- Zeus and Poseidon: the god whose son-in-law he is, and the one Proteus serves.