Atreus and Aerope were the parents of Agamemnon and Menelaus. Aerope's affair with Thyestes triggered the curse that devastated the House of Atreus.
Menelaus and Helen of Troy's daughter Hermione was contested between Neoptolemus and Orestes, ultimately marrying Orestes after Neoptolemus's death at Delphi.
Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus jointly led the Greek expedition against Troy, with Agamemnon as supreme commander and Menelaus as the wronged husband whose cause united the Greeks.
Ajax and Menelaus jointly defended the body of Patroclus in Iliad Book 17, holding off the Trojans in a desperate rearguard action until the corpse could be carried to safety.
Euphorbus challenged Menelaus over Patroclus's body in Iliad 17, invoking the death of his brother Hyperenor at Menelaus's hands. Their duel ended with Menelaus driving his spear through Euphorbus's throat.
Menelaus and Paris are mortal enemies — the cuckolded king of Sparta against the prince who stole his wife. When they met in single combat before the walls of Troy, Menelaus dragged Paris by his helmet until Aphrodite snatched her favorite away in a cloud of mist.
On the night Troy fell, Menelaus killed and savagely mutilated Deiphobus after Helen betrayed her second husband by removing his weapons and opening the door to the Greeks.
In Iliad 17, Menelaus killed Euphorbus with a spear thrust through the throat as the Trojan tried to strip Patroclus's body. Homer compares the fallen Euphorbus to a young olive tree uprooted by a storm.
Menelaus killed Hyperenor, son of Panthous, during the fighting at Troy. When Euphorbus later challenged Menelaus over Patroclus's body, he invoked his brother Hyperenor's death as a grievance.
The greatest heroes and the most favored of the gods dwell in Elysium after death, freed from the sorrows of Hades. Achilles, Peleus, Pelops, Menelaus, Cadmus, Harmonia, and Diomedes earned their place among the blessed dead.
Antilochus and Menelaus competed in the chariot race at Patroclus's funeral games. Antilochus won through a risky maneuver that nearly caused a collision, leading Menelaus to protest before they reconciled.
Menelaus won Helen's hand among all the suitors of Greece. After Paris took her to Troy, Menelaus invoked the Oath of Tyndareus and waged ten years of war to recover her.
Menelaus promised his daughter Hermione to Neoptolemus at Troy, contradicting an earlier betrothal to Orestes arranged by Tyndareus. This conflicting promise created the rivalry between Neoptolemus and Orestes over Hermione.
Agamemnon lured Iphigenia to Aulis with a false offer of marriage to Achilles. Menelaus, whose wife Helen's abduction caused the war, pressured his brother to go through with the sacrifice.
In Iliad Book 4, Machaon treated the arrow wound of Menelaus after Pandarus shot him during the truce. Machaon sucked out the blood, applied healing herbs, and restored the king to fighting condition.
Nestor sailed home from Troy alongside Menelaus before storms scattered the fleet. Nestor later told Telemachus of Menelaus's long wanderings before reaching Sparta.
In Euripides's Orestes, Menelaus refused to defend his nephew before the Argive assembly's death sentence, prompting Orestes and Pylades to seize Helen as hostage in a desperate bid for leverage.
In the Iliad, Menelaus led the defense of Patroclus's fallen body alongside Ajax, fighting off Trojans to prevent them from seizing the corpse and carrying it back to the Greek camp.
In Odyssey 4, Menelaus captured Proteus on the island of Pharos by ambushing him among his seals at midday. He held the shape-shifting god through transformations into a lion, serpent, leopard, boar, water, and tree until Proteus yielded and prophesied Menelaus's route home.
In Sophocles's Ajax, Menelaus joins Agamemnon in attempting to deny Ajax burial, threatening the fate of Tecmessa and Eurysaces who guard the body.
Menelaus and Helen received Telemachus at Sparta during his search for Odysseus. Menelaus confirmed that Odysseus still lived, trapped on Calypso's island, as the sea god Proteus had revealed to him.
Menelaus's loss of Helen to Paris was the casus belli of the Trojan War. He invoked the Oath of Tyndareus to rally the Greek kings and fought throughout the siege, reclaiming Helen after Troy's fall.
Tyndareus chose Menelaus as Helen's husband from among her many suitors and made him heir to the Spartan throne, binding all rejected suitors by oath to defend the match.
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