Menelaus

in Greek legend, the king of Sparta. He was the brother of Agamemnon and the husband of Helen whose abduction brought about the Trojan War. Menelaus summoned his friends and allies to his support in a siege of Troy which lasted ten years. While the object of the war was attained, and Menelaus recovered his wife, he is by no means the heroic personage of the legend. His return occupied eight years of wandering. See Achilles; Ulysses; Helen; Priam; Troy, etc.