Why Menelaus?

Abstract

This chapter assesses the depiction of Menelaus in non-Homeric archaic poetry. What emerges most clearly about Menelaus, from the bits and pieces remaining from non-Homeric archaic poetry, is relationships: chiefly with Agamemnon and Helen; but also with Nestor and his sons, Antenor, and with kinsmen and hosts on Crete. The Cyclic fragments, scant as they are, disclose something of Menelaus’ stature independent of Agamemnon. The Cypria particularly shows Menelaus in the events leading up to the Trojan War largely acting on his own, or the gods’, initiative. Meanwhile, the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women emphasizes Menelaus’ success by virtue of his wealth at the great world-historical moment, not the Trojan War per se but earlier, in the wooing of Helen. In what remains of Menelaus in archaic lyric, the relationships with Agamemnon and Helen are also prominent. In Alcman, he is celebrated, with Helen and the Dioscuri, as the recipient of choral song at a place called Therapne. In Stesichorus, Menelaus is sidelined while Helen turns prophet. In the extant fragments of Sappho, Menelaus is mentioned along with his brother and wife.