Editing Menelaus (section)

===Accession and reign===
Although early authors, such as [[Aeschylus]], refer in passing to Menelaus's early life, detailed sources are quite late, post-dating 5th-century BC Greek [[tragedy]].<ref>The chief sources for Menelaus's life before the Trojan War are [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]]'s ''Fabulae'' and the Epitome of the ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]]''.</ref> According to these sources, Menelaus's father, [[Atreus]], had been feuding with his brother [[Thyestes]] over the throne of [[Mycenae]]. After a back-and-forth struggle that featured [[adultery]], [[incest]], and [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]], Thyestes gained the throne after his son [[Aegisthus]] murdered [[Atreus]]. As a result, Atreus' sons, Menelaus and [[Agamemnon]], went into exile. They first stayed with King [[Polypheides]] of [[Sicyon]], and later with King [[Oeneus]] of [[Calydon]]. But when they thought the time was ripe to dethrone Mycenae's hostile ruler, they returned. Assisted by King [[Tyndareus]] of [[Sparta]], they drove Thyestes away, and Agamemnon took the [[throne]] for himself.

When it was time for [[Tyndareus]]' stepdaughter [[Helen of Troy|Helen]] to marry, [[Suitors of Helen|many kings and princes]] came to seek her hand. Among the contenders were [[Odysseus]], [[Menestheus]], [[Ajax the Great]], [[Patroclus]], and [[Idomeneus]]. Most offered opulent gifts. Tyndareus would accept none of the gifts, nor would he send any of the suitors away for fear of offending them and giving grounds for a quarrel. Odysseus promised to solve the problem in a satisfactory manner if Tyndareus would support him in his courting of Tyndareus's niece [[Penelope]], the daughter of [[Icarius]]. Tyndareus readily agreed, and Odysseus proposed that, before the decision was made, all the suitors should swear a most solemn oath to defend the chosen husband in any quarrel. Then it was decreed that straws were to be drawn for Helen's hand. The suitor who won was Menelaus (Tyndareus, not to displease the mighty Agamemnon offered him another of his daughters, [[Clytaemnestra]]).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mythologia.8m.com/trojanwar1.html |title=Τρωικοσ Πολεμοσ - Ελληνικη Μυθολογια Και Πολιτισμοσ |access-date=2011-10-05 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111001224939/http://www.mythologia.8m.com/trojanwar1.html |archive-date=2011-10-01 }}</ref> The rest of the suitors swore their oaths, and Helen and Menelaus were married, Menelaus becoming a ruler of Sparta with Helen after Tyndareus and [[Leda (mythology)|Leda]] abdicated the thrones.

Their supposed palace (ἀνάκτορον) has been discovered (the excavations started in 1926 and continued until 1995) in [[Pellana]], [[Laconia]], to the north-west of modern (and classical) Sparta.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.asxetos.gr/pedia/lexika/elliniko-lexiko/diavlitikos-23440.html|title=Διαβλητικός|last=admin}}</ref> Other archaeologists consider that [[Pellana]] is too far away from other Mycenaean centres to have been the "capital of Menelaus".<ref>Mee & Spawforth (2001), p. 229</ref>

According to tradition Menelaus founded the port-city [[Menelai Portus]] on the coast of [[Marmarica]] in Northern Africa.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0062:id=menelai-portus-harpers Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Menelai Portus]</ref>

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| before = [[Tyndareus]]<br>(second reign)
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{{s-ttl
| title = [[List of kings of Sparta|King of Sparta]]
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| after = [[Orestes]]
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