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38-519: In the account of Dares the Phrygian , Menelaus was described as "of moderate stature, auburn-haired, and handsome. He had a pleasing personality." Menelaus was a descendant of Pelops son of Tantalus . He was the younger brother of Agamemnon , and the husband of Helen of Troy . According to the usual version of the story, followed by the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer , Agamemnon and Menelaus were

76-524: A Greek original. Together with the similar work of Dictys Cretensis (with which it is generally printed), the De excidio forms the chief source for the numerous medieval accounts of the Trojan legend, the so-called Matter of Troy . Dares claimed 866,000 Greeks and 676,000 Trojans were killed in this war, but archaeology has uncovered nothing that suggests a war this large was ever fought on that site. The work

114-499: A back-and-forth struggle that featured adultery , incest , and cannibalism , Thyestes gained the throne after his son Aegisthus murdered Atreus . As a result, Atreus' sons, Menelaus and Agamemnon , went into exile. They first stayed with King Polypheides of Sicyon , and later with King Oeneus of Calydon . But when they thought the time was ripe to dethrone Mycenae's hostile ruler, they returned. Assisted by King Tyndareus of Sparta , they drove Thyestes away, and Agamemnon took

152-497: A character in a number of 5th-century Greek tragedies: Sophocles 's Ajax , and Euripides 's Andromache , Helen , Orestes , Iphigenia at Aulis , and The Trojan Women . Dares Phrygius Dares Phrygius ( Ancient Greek : Δάρης ), according to Homer , was a Trojan priest of Hephaestus . He was later thought to have been the author of an account of the destruction of Troy. A work in Latin , purporting to be

190-710: A plan to deal with her suitors while also responding to her desires. Sissa discusses how Penelope gives her suitors the opportunity to demonstrate themselves as the best candidate for her attention. Sissa writes, "Penelope innovates. And she does so because she responds in the same register to the desires of the men who have been awaiting her verdict for three years. This is an erotic desire to which she reacts, first, with seductive wiles of messages and promises, and then by inviting them to demonstrate their excellence, not in terms of wealth and social prestige, but in terms of something extremely personal and physical. In order to please Penelope, they have to be on par with Ulysses in showing

228-444: A quarrel. Odysseus promised to solve the problem in a satisfactory manner if Tyndareus would support him in his courting of Tyndareus's niece Penelope , the daughter of Icarius . Tyndareus readily agreed, and Odysseus proposed that, before the decision was made, all the suitors should swear a most solemn oath to defend the chosen husband in any quarrel. Then it was decreed that straws were to be drawn for Helen's hand. The suitor who won

266-484: A son Pleisthenes . The mythographer Apollodorus , tells us that Megapenthes's mother was a slave " Pieris , an Aetolian, or, according to Acusilaus , ... Tereis ", and that Menelaus had another illegitimate son Xenodamas by another slave girl, Cnossia, while according to the geographer Pausanias , Megapenthes and Nicostratus were sons of Menelaus by a slave. The scholiast on Iliad 3.175 mentions Nicostratus and Aethiolas as two sons of Helen (by Menelaus?) worshipped by

304-467: A translation of this, and entitled Daretis Phrygii de excidio Troiae historia , was much read in the Middle Ages , and was then ascribed to Cornelius Nepos , who is made to dedicate it to Sallust ; but the language better fits a period much later than the time of Nepos (probably the 5th century AD). It is unknown whether the existing work is an abridgment of a larger Latin work or an adaptation of

342-474: Is a character in Homer 's Odyssey . She was the queen of Ithaca and was the daughter of Spartan king Icarius and Asterodia . Penelope is known for her fidelity to her husband Odysseus , despite the attention of more than a hundred suitors during his absence. In one source, Penelope's original name was Arnacia or Arnaea. Glossed by Hesychius as "some kind of bird" (today arbitrarily identified with

380-511: Is considered the most appropriate for a cunning weaver whose motivation is hard to decipher. Robert S. P. Beekes believed the name to be Pre-Greek and related to pēnelops ( πηνέλοψ ) or pēnelōps ( πηνέλωψ ). Penelope is married to the main character, the king of Ithaca , Odysseus (Ulysses in Roman mythology), and daughter of Icarius of Sparta and Periboea (or Polycaste ). She only has one son with Odysseus, Telemachus , who

418-558: Is shown to be fond of Megapenthes and Nicostratus , his sons by slave women. According to Euripides' Helen , Menelaus is reunited with Helen after death, on the Isle of the Blessed . Menelaus appears in Greek vase painting in the 6th to 4th centuries BC, such as: Menelaus's reception of Paris at Sparta; his retrieval of Patroclus's corpse; and his reunion with Helen. Menelaus appears as

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456-462: The Eurasian wigeon , to which Linnaeus gave the binomial Anas penelope ), where -elōps ( -έλωψ ) is a common Pre-Greek suffix for predatory animals; however, the semantic relation between the proper name and the gloss is not clear. In folk etymology , Pēnelopē ( Πηνελόπη ) is usually understood to combine the Greek word pēnē ( πήνη ), " weft ", and ōps ( ὤψ ), "face", which

494-550: The Lacedaemonians and another son of Helen by Menelaus, Maraphius, from whom descended the Persian Maraphions. Although early authors, such as Aeschylus , refer in passing to Menelaus's early life, detailed sources are quite late, post-dating 5th-century BC Greek tragedy . According to these sources, Menelaus's father, Atreus , had been feuding with his brother Thyestes over the throne of Mycenae . After

532-454: The throne for himself. When it was time for Tyndareus ' stepdaughter Helen to marry, many kings and princes came to seek her hand. Among the contenders were Odysseus , Menestheus , Ajax the Great , Patroclus , and Idomeneus . Most offered opulent gifts. Tyndareus would accept none of the gifts, nor would he send any of the suitors away for fear of offending them and giving grounds for

570-710: The Greek word for "all" ( πᾶν ). The Odyssey carefully suppresses this variant tradition. Penelope is recognizable in Greek and Roman works, from Attic vase-paintings—the Penelope Painter is recognized by his representations of her—to Roman sculptures copying or improvising upon classical Greek models, by her seated pose, by her reflective gesture of leaning her cheek on her hand, and by her protectively crossed legs, reflecting her long chastity in Odysseus' absence, an unusual pose in any other figure. Latin references to Penelope revolved around her sexual loyalty to

608-649: The Trojans refused, providing a casus belli for the Trojan War . Homer 's Iliad is the most comprehensive source for Menelaus's exploits during the Trojan War. In Book 3, Menelaus challenges Paris to a duel for Helen's return. Menelaus soundly beats Paris, but before he can kill him and claim victory, Aphrodite spirits Paris away inside the walls of Troy. In Book 4, while the Greeks and Trojans squabble over

646-418: The bed himself and knows that one of its legs is a living olive tree . Penelope finally accepts that he truly is Odysseus, a moment that highlights their homophrosýnē ( ὁμοφροσύνη , "like-mindedness"). Homer implies that from then on Odysseus would live a long and happy life together with Penelope and Telemachus, wisely ruling his kingdom, and enjoying wide respect and much success. Penelope also appears in

684-566: The duel's winner, Athena inspires the Trojan Pandarus to shoot Menelaus with his bow and arrow. However, Athena never intended for Menelaus to die and she protects him from the arrow of Pandarus. Menelaus is wounded in the abdomen, and the fighting resumes. Later, in Book 17, Homer gives Menelaus an extended aristeia as the hero retrieves the corpse of Patroclus from the battlefield. According to Hyginus , Menelaus killed eight men in

722-552: The enchantress Circe, while Telegonus married the new widowed Penelope. After burying Odysseus, Circe made the other three immortal. According to Hyginus , Penelope and Telegonus had a son called Italus who, according to some accounts, gave his name to Italy . This legend inspired Sophocles lost tragedy Odysseus Acanthoplex . In some early sources such as Pindar , Pan 's parents are Apollo and Penelope. Herodotus , Cicero , Apollodorus , and Hyginus all describe Hermes and Penelope as his parents. Pausanias records

760-426: The island and, assailed by hunger, began plundering it. Odysseus and his oldest son, Telemachus , defended their city and, in the ensuing melée, Telegonus accidentally killed his father with a lance tipped with the venomous spine of a stingray . After discovering the identity of his father, Telegonus brought Telemachus and Penelope to Circe's island. Here, Athena ordered the marriage of Telemachus to Telegonus' mother,

798-467: The lost Greek epic Telegony . that does not survive except in a summary, but that was attributed to Eugamon or Eugammon of Cyrene and written as a sequel to the Odyssey . According to this epic, Odysseus had a son called Telegonus with Circe when he was in her island. When Telegonus had grown to manhood, Circe sent him in search of Odysseus. Shipwrecked on Ithaca by a storm, Telegonus misidentified

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836-463: The men she so loathes ... adding that she might take this opportunity to talk to Telemachus (which she will indeed do). It is important to consider the alternate perspective of Penelope entertaining, and even enjoying the attention of, her suitors. Italian philosophy historian Giula Sissa offers a unique perspective which supports this idea. The Odyssey allows room for Penelope’s identity free of being Ulysses’ wife. As she awaits his return, she makes

874-465: The might of their bodies." She is ambivalent, variously asking Artemis to kill her and apparently considering marrying one of the suitors. When the disguised Odysseus returns, she announces in her long interview with him that whoever can string Odysseus's rigid bow and shoot an arrow through twelve axe heads may have her hand. "For the plot of the Odyssey , of course, her decision is the turning point,

912-479: The most beautiful woman in all the world. After concluding a diplomatic mission to Sparta during the latter part of which Menelaus was absent to attend the funeral of his maternal grandfather Catreus in Crete , Paris ran off to Troy with Helen despite his brother Hector 's prohibition. Invoking the oath of Tyndareus , Menelaus and Agamemnon raised a fleet of a thousand ships and went to Troy to secure Helen's return;

950-414: The move that makes possible the long-predicted triumph of the returning hero". There is debate as to whether Penelope knows that it is Odysseus. Penelope and the suitors know that Odysseus (were he in fact present) would easily surpass them all in any test of masculine skill, so she may have started the contest as an opportunity for him to reveal his identity. On the other hand, because Odysseus seems to be

988-485: The north-west of modern (and classical) Sparta. Other archaeologists consider that Pellana is too far away from other Mycenaean centres to have been the "capital of Menelaus". According to tradition Menelaus founded the port-city Menelai Portus on the coast of Marmarica in Northern Africa. According to legend, in return for awarding her a golden apple inscribed "to the fairest," Aphrodite promised Paris

1026-426: The only person (except, perhaps, Telemachus) who can actually use the bow, she could just be further delaying her marriage to one of the suitors. When the contest of the bow begins, none of the suitors are able to string the bow, except Odysseus who wins the contest. Having done so, he proceeds to slaughter the suitors – beginning with Antinous whom he finds drinking from his cup – with help from Telemachus, Athena and

1064-447: The slaves Eumaeus the swineherd and Philoetius the cowherd. Odysseus has now revealed himself in all his glory (with a little makeover by Athena); yet Penelope cannot believe that her husband has really returned – she fears that it is perhaps some god in disguise, as in the story of Alcmene – and tests him by ordering her slave Eurycleia to move the bed in their bridal-chamber. Odysseus protests that this cannot be done, since he made

1102-441: The son of Crisus . According to the Odyssey , Menelaus had only one child by Helen, a daughter named Hermione ; and an illegitimate son, Megapenthes , by a slave. Other sources mention other sons of Menelaus by either Helen, or slaves. A scholiast on Sophocles 's Electra quotes Hesiod as saying that after Hermione, Helen also bore Menelaus a son Nicostratus , while according to a Cypria fragment, Menelaus and Helen had

1140-504: The sons of Atreus , king of Mycenae , and Aerope , daughter of the Cretan king Catreus . However, according to another tradition, Agamemnon and Menelaus were the sons of Atreus's son Pleisthenes , with their mother being Aerope, Cleolla , or Eriphyle. According to this tradition Pleisthenes died young, with Agamemnon and Menelaus being raised by Atreus. Agamemnon and Menelaus had a sister Anaxibia (or Astyoche ) who married Strophius ,

1178-474: The story that Penelope had in fact been unfaithful to Odysseus, who banished her to Mantineia upon his return. In the 5th century AD Nonnus names Pan's mother as Penelope of Mantineia in Arcadia . Other sources report that Penelope had slept with all 108 suitors in Odysseus' absence, and gave birth to Pan as a result. This myth reflects the folk etymology that equates Pan's name ( Πάν ) with

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1216-483: The suitors, one of which is to pretend to be weaving a burial shroud for Odysseus's elderly father Laertes and claiming that she will choose a suitor when she has finished. Every night for three years, she undoes part of the shroud, until Melantho , a slave, discovers her chicanery and reveals it to the suitors. Penelope's efforts to delay remarriage is often seen as a symbol of marital fidelity to her husband, Odysseus. But because Athena wants her "to show herself to

1254-617: The war, and was one of the Greeks hidden inside the Trojan Horse . During the sack of Troy, Menelaus killed Deiphobus , who had married Helen after the death of Paris. There are four versions of Menelaus's and Helen's reunion on the night of the sack of Troy: Book 4 of the Odyssey provides an account of Menelaus's return from Troy and his homelife in Sparta. When visited by Odysseus's son Telemachus , Menelaus recounts his voyage home. As happened to many Greeks, Menelaus's homebound fleet

1292-611: The wooers, that she might set their hearts a-flutter and win greater honor from her husband and her son than heretofore", Penelope does eventually appear before the suitors Irene de Jong wrote  As so often, it is Athena who takes the initiative in giving the story a new direction ... Usually the motives of mortal and god coincide, here they do not: Athena wants Penelope to fan the Suitors’ desire for her and (thereby) make her more esteemed by her husband and son; Penelope has no real motive ... she simply feels an unprecedented impulse to meet

1330-492: Was Menelaus (Tyndareus, not to displease the mighty Agamemnon offered him another of his daughters, Clytaemnestra ). The rest of the suitors swore their oaths, and Helen and Menelaus were married, Menelaus becoming a ruler of Sparta with Helen after Tyndareus and Leda abdicated the thrones. Their supposed palace (ἀνάκτορον) has been discovered (the excavations started in 1926 and continued until 1995) in Pellana , Laconia , to

1368-731: Was a significant source for Joseph of Exeter 's De bello Troiano . It was also completely reworked in the 8th century in Merovingian Gaul into the work entitled Historia de origine Francorum ('History of the Origins of the Franks'), which purports to describe the descent of the Franks from the Trojans and is attributed to Dares. Penelope Penelope ( / p ə ˈ n ɛ l ə p i / pə- NEL -ə-pee ; Ancient Greek : Πηνελόπεια, Pēnelópeia , or Πηνελόπη , Pēnelópē )

1406-472: Was blown by storms to Crete and Egypt where they were becalmed, unable to sail away. They trapped Proteus and forced him to reveal how to make the voyage home. Once back in Sparta, he and Helen are shown to be reconciled and have a harmonious married life—he holding no grudge at her having run away with a lover and she feeling no restraint in telling anecdotes of her life inside besieged Troy. Menelaus does seem to be pained that he and Helen have no male heir, and

1444-492: Was born just before Odysseus was called to fight in the Trojan War . She waits twenty years for Odysseus' return, during which time she devises various cunning strategies to delay marrying any of the 108 suitors (led by Antinous and including Agelaus , Amphinomus , Ctessippus, Demoptolemus , Elatus , Euryades, Eurymachus and Peisander ). On Odysseus's return, disguised as an old beggar, he finds that Penelope has remained faithful. She has devised cunning tricks to delay

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