MENELAUS

Apollodorus calls Menelaus a son of Atreus and Aerope. He married Helen, received the Spartan kingship from Tyndareus, and called on Agamemnon when Paris carried Helen away. 1Pseudo-Apollodorus — Epitome 2.15–16, 3.3–6, 3.12

Homer finds him home in Sparta celebrating two marriages: Hermione, Helen's only child, was being sent to Neoptolemus, while Megapenthes, Menelaus' son by a slave woman, received his own bride. 2Homer — Odyssey 4.1–14

Storms drove Menelaus through Crete, Libya, Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Egypt. Apollodorus reports a tradition in which he recovered the real Helen from Proteus after Troy had contained only a cloud phantom; Hyginus instead has Proteus teach him how to appease the gods and return in the eighth year. 3Pseudo-Apollodorus · Hyginus — Epitome 6.29; Fabulae 118

Pausanias records that Sparta preferred Orestes' Tyndarid claim over Nicostratus and Megapenthes, sons of Menelaus by a slave woman. The succession therefore passed through Hermione rather than Menelaus' sons. 4Pausanias — Description of Greece 2.18.6