Menelaus

American  

[men-l-ey-uhs] / ˌmɛn lˈeɪ əs /

noun

1. Classical Mythology. a king of Sparta, the husband of Helen and brother of Agamemnon, to whom he appealed for an army against Troy in order to recover Helen from her abductor, Paris.

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Menelaus British  

/ ˌmɛnɪˈleɪəs /

noun

1. Greek myth a king of Sparta and the brother of Agamemnon. He was the husband of Helen, whose abduction led to the Trojan War

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Menelaus

Ms. Clark captured Helena’s intensity and determination to make Menelaus feel her love for him; Mr. Myers was poignant in his depiction of a strong man’s total confusion.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

When the woman is a powerful man’s wife — Helen was married to King Menelaus of Sparta — the effort to retrieve her can hardly help escalating to armed conflict.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 28, 2021

As Whishaw spins out modern-ancient parallels, including a comparison of Arthur Miller to Menelaus, he strips down and changes into drag, eventually assuming Monroe’s look in “The Seven Year Itch.”

From The New Yorker ● May 20, 2019

So do the breezy complacency of Menelaus, the innocence of Nausicaa, the gruff decency of the swineherd Eumaeus.

From New York Times ● Dec. 5, 2017

So Agamemnon spoke to both armies, declaring that Menelaus was victor and bidding the Trojans give Helen back.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton