Menelaus

American  

[men-l-ay-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

Telemachus is horrified that a boy would murder his own mother, but Menelaus sets him straight.

From Salon ● Sep. 3, 2026

“You hear the story of the horse,” Menelaus says, “but did you hear it from the inside?”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026

The father’s subsequent confrontation with Menelaus is so stilted and jumbled that it nearly derails the play.

From New York Times ● Aug. 25, 2022

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

She led the young shepherd, with never a thought of Oenone left forlorn, straight to Sparta, where Menelaus and Helen received him graciously as their guest.

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