Menelaus

for perhaps he made the palace to suit the character of Menelaus, whom he calls the only 'soft warrior' among the Achaeans.

And still more the dwelling of Menelaus, and that of a man returned from a campaign—does he not describe it as something Persian and Median, almost not far short of the palace of Semiramis, or of Darius and Xerxes?

"For very nearly this poet seems to say nothing else idly either, but often likens dress and dwelling and manner of life to the character of the men.

Give me nothing of your own, Menelaus, but repay what you received from my father.

Menelaus, why are you pacing round and round in thought, going back and forth, in a dilemma?

Menelaus, your brother lies dead, plunged in a fatal bath, the last his wife will ever give him.

And Isaiah, from the reign of Solomon, in whose time Menelaus was shown to have come to Phoenicia, in the three-hundredth year, is found still prophesying, and Micah with him, and Hosea, and Joel the son of Bathuel.

Hiram gives his own daughter to Solomon at the time when, after the capture of Troy, Menelaus came to Phoenicia, as Menander of Pergamum and Laetus say in their Phoenician histories.

It is easy, then, to see that Solomon, who lived in the time of Menelaus (and Menelaus was in the time of the Trojan matters), is older by many years than the sages among the Greeks.

But I cannot convince her, and she longs to kill me, and her father Menelaus is an accomplice in this.

But I, after all this foresight for thee, old man, and myself, am to have her torn from my clutches for wishing to slay her.

thou that hast raised such a storm, at the word of thy daughter, a mere child, and hast entered the lists with a poor captive;

Goaded to frenzy, Menelaus flew through Hellas, invoking the ancient oath exacted by Tyndareus and declaring the duty of helping the injured husband.

Take one precaution for me, Menelaus, as you go through the army, that Clytemnestra does not learn this, till I have taken my child and devoted her to death, that my affliction may be attended with the fewest tears.

I swear to tell you the truth from my heart, without any covert purpose, but only what I think.

For there lord Agamemnon mustered his expedition of a thousand ships of Hellas, wanting to take the crown of Troy in glorious victory and avenge the outrage to Helen’s marriage, doing this favor for Menelaus.

Has Helen come back to Menelaus’ home?

She lives at Sparta with her former bedfellow.

Never, never let me see Eurotas’ swirling tide, hateful home of Helen, there to meet and be the slave of Menelaus, whose hand laid Troy waste!

where you tied your hawsers, twisted handiwork from Egypt, in quest of that hateful wife of Menelaus, who brought disgrace on Castor, and on Eurotas foul reproach;

nor was the palace of Menelaus rich enough for your luxury to riot in.

Lacedaemon, Menelaus, who because of his moderation and his justice was the one man to be deemed worthy to become the son-in-law of Zeus;

For he conceived of his mission in terms so lofty that he was not satisfied with making up his army from all the men in private station whom he desired to have from each of the cities of Hellas, but even persuaded men of the rank of kings, who were accustomed to do in their own states whatsoever they pleased and to give orders to the world at large, to place themselves under his command, to follow …

I was speaking in reply to those who reproach us with the misfortunes of the Melians and of villages with like populations, not meaning that we had done no wrong in these instances, but trying to show that those who are the idols of these speakers have laid waste more and greater cities than the Athenians have done, in which connection I discussed the virtues of Agamemnon and Menelaus and Nestor, …

as Menelaus the Laconian had a certain sweet-spoken pleasantness .

Yes, but your own cavalry-commander has to sail to Lemnos, leaving Menelaus to command the men who are fighting for our city’s possessions.

the sight of a man with embroidered breeches on his legs and a golden chain about his neck so fluttered her, that she left Menelaus, her excellent little husband.

But as for your mother, Menelaus, who has arrived at Nauplia only now after capturing Troy, will bury her, with Helen helping him;

Now if Menelaus had been secretly snatched from his home, should I have killed Orestes to save Menelaus, my sister’s husband?

Yet, although getting this, Menelaus was guilty of injustice toward the Egyptians.

After the rape of Helen, a great force of Greeks came to the Trojan land on Menelaus ' behalf.

But, when I asked the priests whether the Greek account of what happened at Troy were idle or not, they gave me the following answer, saying that they had inquired and knew from Menelaus himself.

Thus in Homer, in the agreement between Paris and Menelaus, that Helen should be given up to the conqueror, when compared with what follows, it is evident that by the conqueror is meant the combatant, who killed the other.

After this she so amply recompensed Menelaus for the toils and perils which he had undergone because of her, that when all the race of the Pelopidae had perished and were the victims of irremediable disasters, not only did she free him from these misfortunes but, having made him god instead of mortal, she established him as partner of her house and sharer of her throne forever.

And they were not acting in this way as eager champions of Alexander or of Menelaus;

Don’t you remember that in the case of Menelaus too from the wound that Pandarus inflicted They sucked the blood, and soothing simples sprinkled?

And after this Menelaus sails off to Crete, charging Helen to provide the strangers with what they need until they depart.

He returns and takes counsel with his brother about the expedition against Ilium, and Menelaus then goes to Nestor.

This—that when we had hoped we were bringing Ajax from home to be an ally and a friend for the Greeks, we found him on closer examination to be an enemy worse than the Phrygians, since he plotted the murder of the entire army and marched by night against us in order to take us with his spear.

Menelaus, after laying down wise precepts, do not then violate the dead.

It was not at all for your wife’s sake that Ajax made this expedition, as did those toil-worn drudges.

Did Menelaus not have two children, who should in fairness have died instead of my daughter, since the father and mother from whom they were sprung had caused that voyage?

For that reason, under fierce constraint and with much resistance, at last he sacrificed her—but it was not for the sake of Menelaus.

O you twin marshalls, Agamemnon, and you, Menelaus, may your flesh instead of mine nourish this plague, and for as long!

But, because the gods grant me nothing that is sweet, you remain alive and you laugh, while I live miserably among countless sufferings, mocked by you and by the sons of Atreus, the two generals whom you serve on this errand.