MENELAUS
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Transcript of MENELAUS
1
MENELAUS
A LEGENDARY KING OF SPARTA,
THE HUSBAND OF HELEN,
A CENTRAL FIGURE IN THE TROJAN WAR
2
Menelaus was the son of the
King Atreus of Mycenae and
the Cretan Aerope. His
brother was Agamemnon. He
married Helen, daughter of
Tyndareus.
Menelaus and Helen had a
daughter, Hermione, and
some variations of the myth
suggest they had a son
Nicostrato also.
Following Tyndareus's
death, Menelaus became
king of Sparta because the
only male heirs, Castor and
Polydeuces had died and
ascended to Mount
Olympus.
Giacomo Brogi. Menelaus, marble bust. Before 1881. Rome (Vatican Museums).
Bust of Helen of Troy by Antonio Canova at Victoria and Albert Museum.
3
Menelaus and Helen lived quietly in Sparta, but their
happiness was destroyed on the arrival of Paris, a Trojan
prince.
At that time,
Menelaus was in
Crete to attend the
funeral of his
uncle. Herodotus
states that during the
absence of the king,
Helen was abducted.
Other versions relate how Helen fell in love with Paris.
Sappho argues that Helen willingly left behind Menelaus
and Hermione, her nine-year-old daughter, to be with Paris.
Either way is that both escaped and sailed to Troy.
Menelaus was warned by Iris of this disgrace and he
returned to Sparta, where he summoned all the kings who
had taken the oath of Tyndareus.
The Rape of Helen by Tintoretto. Helen languishes in the corner of a land-sea battle scene. C. 1578–1579.Museo del Prado, Madrid.
4
He asked his brother
Agamemnon to help him to
get Helen back from Troy.
Agamemnon then sent
several emissaries to the
Achaean kings and princes
to help retrieve Helen.
Thus began the Trojan
War.
Virtually all of
Greece took part in
attacking Troy with Menelaus.
Then Menelaus and
Ulysses went to Delphi
to consult the oracle on
expedition against Troy.
Iris, by Luca Giordano, 1684-1686.
The rock from which the Erythraean Sibyl or Herophile foretold the future.
5
Menelaus took part in the expedition with sixty ships.
Menelaus fought bravely at
Troy, although he did not
occupy as important a
position as his brother
Agamemnon, who was the
commander-in-chief of the
Greek forces.
Immediately after the
landing of the Greek,
Menelaus and Ulysses
went as ambassadors to the
City of Troy to
reclaim Helen and
the treasures that
Paris had taken.
From left to right, Agamemnon, Talthybios and Epeios, identified by inscriptions in Ionian script ("Agamemnon" is written in retrograde script). Fragment of a relief, maybe the armrest from the throne of a cult statue. May represent Agamemnon's initiation to the Samothracean mystery cult. Marble, Greek archaic artwork, ca. 560 BC. From Samothrace.
Portion of the legendary walls of Troy (VII), identified as the site of the Trojan War (ca. 1200 BC)
6
But the Trojans
rejected every offer of
compromise,
providing a casus belli
for the Trojan War.
In the third book of Iliad,
Menelaus challenges Paris
to a duel for Helen's return
and Helen would be for
the winner. Menelaus
beated Paris, but before he
could kill him and claim
victory Aphrodite hid him
under a cloud and took
him inside the walls of
Troy.
Scene of the Trojan War, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.
Tabula iliaca representing the fight of Menelaus and Paris for Helen: Menelaus (hand on the left) grabs Paris (with Phrygian cap and round shield) by the helmet to drag him to the Greek camp. Marble, 1st century BC. From Rome? Stored in the Staatliche Museeen of Berlin, Antikensammlung.
7
Kalliades as potter (signed), Douris as painter (signed). Menelaus (centre-left) pursues Paris (centre-right) as Aphrodite (left) and Artemis (right) watch on. Side A from an Attic red-figure kylix, ca. 490–480 BC. From Capua.
Antalya Archaeological Museum. Ancient Roman sarcophagus of Aurelia Botania Demetria ( 2nd century AD ): Aphrodite is concealing Paris who is defeated by Menelaos. Odysseus is looking at the szene.
8
In the fourth book Zeus sent Athena to break the truce;
Athena inspired the Trojan Pandarus to kill Menelaus.
Pandarus sent an arrow and wounded him slightly in the
abdomen. From that moment the battle resumed between
both sides.
Menelaus killed
Scamandrius, son
of Strophius.
Although he
fought with
Aeneas, did not
accomplish
anything. In the
evening, Hector
challenged some
of the Greeks to fight against him, Menelaus accepted the
challenge, but Agamemnon and the other kings disuaded
him.
During the fighting around the ships, Menelaus wounded
Helenus and then killed Pisandro, Hyperenor, Dolops and
finally Thoas.
Menelaos and Hector fighting over the body of Euphorbos. Plate, Middle Wild Goat style, made in Rhodes ca. 600 BC. From Kameiros.
9
In the seventeenth book
Homer described
Menelaus with an
enormous aristeia, as the
hero retrieved the corpse
of Patroclus from the
battlefield. He slayed
Podes and Euphorbus
there. In the twentythird book of the Iliad he bravely
competed in the funeral games of Patroclus.
In the events after the Iliad when Paris was killed by an
arrow, Menelaus insulted the corpse. He was among the
warriors who were hidden in the wooden horse.
Menelaus and Meriones lifting Patroclus' corpse on a cart while Odysseus (on the right, wearing the pilos hat and a shield) looks on. Alabaster urn, Etruscan artwork, 2nd century BC. From Volterra. Stored in the Museo Nazionale Archeologico Nazionale in Florence.
Depiction of the story of the Trojan horse in the art of Gandhara. British Museum.
10
Finally Menelaus killed
Deiphobus, who had
married Helen after the
death of Paris. He also
intended to kill Helen.
Menelaus took Helen by
the hair and dragged her
to the boats. But struck by
her beauty he forgave her
and Helen was saved.
Helen on the Ramparts of Troy by Gustave Moreau, depict an expressionless Helen; a blank or anguished face. Late 19th century
Menelaus Painter. Menelaus intends to strike Helen; struck by her beauty, he drops his swords. A flying Eros and Aphrodite (on the left) watch the scene. Detail of an Attic red-figure crater, ca. 450–440 BC, found in Gnathia (now Egnazia, Italy).
11
After the victory, Menelaus started on his journey back to
Sparta, while his brother stayed in Troy.
When he arrived at Cape Malea, a storm dragged him to
Crete, where several of their boats capsized. From Crete he
went to Egypt where he spent five years and he got a lot of
richess.
Another version said
that Hermes carried the real
Helen to Egypt, giving her to
King Proteus. She spent the
ten years of the Trojan War
there, while her phantom
went to Troy. When
Menelaus arrived to Egypt,
he was reunited with Helen.
In order to discover what he had to do to obtain fair winds
for the journey, Menelaus had to catch Proteus, a shape-
shifting sea god. He described the sacrifices necessary to
appease the gods and gain safe passage across the sea.
Der höllische Proteus. Erasmus Francisi (1627-1694) was the author of the book. 1695.
12
While Menelaus' ships were becalmed on the island of
Pharos; Menelaus eventually returned safely to Lacedaemon,
where he and Helen settled
back into married life.
At the end of his life Menelaus was transported to Elysium.
According to Euripides'
Helen, after Menelaus
died, he was reunited
with Helen on the Isle of
the Blessed.
Telemachus visited Menelaos, ca. 1886.
"Elisium" by Léon Bakst (1866-1924) from 1906.
13
In the time of Pausanias it was possible to see the house
where Menelaus had lived.
Ruins of Menelaion in Sparta.
14
Ligazóns:
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esparta
http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Menelaus
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antonio_Canova-Helen_of_Troy-Victoria_and_Albert_Museum.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Luca_Giordano_012.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rock-of-Sibyl2.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Greece_scene_of_the_trojan_war_vase.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Troy1.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tabula_iliaca_Musei_Capitolini_MC0316.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Relief_Samothrace_Louvre_Ma697.jpg?uselang=es
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tabula_Iliaca_Antikensammlung_Berlin.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brogi,_Giacomo_%281822-1881%29_-_n._4140_-_Roma_-_Vaticano_-_Menelao_-
_Busto_in_marmo.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IndoGreeksTrojanHorse.jpg?uselang=es
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Telemachos_im_Palast_von_Menelaos.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antalya_Museum_-_Sarkophag_5b_Aphrodite_verbirgt_Paris.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plate_Euphorbos_BM_GR1860.4-4.1.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Menelaos_Paris_Louvre_G115.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Helen_Menelaus_Louvre_G424.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tintoretto_Rape_of_Helen.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Menelaion.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Patroclus_corpse_MAN_Firenze.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karamenderes_River
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hoellischer_Proteus.jpg?uselang=es
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:File-Elisium_by_Leon_Bakst_2.jpg?uselang=es
Third Classical Culture from IES de POIO. Course 2010-11.