Editing Menelaus (section)

===Trojan War===
{{Main article|Trojan War}}
[[Image:Helen Menelaus Louvre G424.jpg|right|thumb|Menelaus regains Helen, detail of an Attic red-figure crater, c. 450–440 BC, found in [[Gnatia]] (now Egnazia, [[Italy]]).]]
According to legend, in return for awarding her a golden apple inscribed "to the fairest," [[Aphrodite]] promised [[Paris (mythology)|Paris]] the most beautiful woman in all the world. After concluding a diplomatic mission to Sparta during the latter part of which Menelaus was absent to attend the funeral of his maternal grandfather [[Catreus]] in [[Crete]], Paris ran off to Troy with Helen despite his brother [[Hector]]'s prohibition. Invoking the oath of [[Tyndareus]], Menelaus and [[Agamemnon]] raised a fleet of a thousand ships and went to Troy to secure Helen's return; the Trojans refused, providing a ''[[casus belli]]'' for the [[Trojan War]].

[[Homer]]'s ''[[Iliad]]'' is the most comprehensive source for Menelaus's exploits during the Trojan War. In Book 3, Menelaus challenges Paris to a duel for Helen's return. Menelaus soundly beats Paris, but before he can kill him and claim victory, Aphrodite spirits Paris away inside the walls of Troy. In Book 4, while the Greeks and Trojans squabble over the duel's winner, [[Athena]] inspires the Trojan [[Pandarus]] to shoot Menelaus with his bow and arrow. However, Athena never intended for Menelaus to die and she protects him from the arrow of Pandarus.<ref>{{Cite book|title = The Iliad of Homer|last1 = Homer|publisher = University of Chicago Press|year = 2011|isbn = 9780226470498|location = Chicago|pages = 116–17|last2 = Lattimore|first2 = Richmond|last3 = Martin|first3 = Richard}}</ref> Menelaus is wounded in the abdomen, and the fighting resumes. Later, in Book 17, Homer gives Menelaus an extended ''[[aristeia]]'' as the hero retrieves the corpse of Patroclus from the battlefield.

According to [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], Menelaus killed eight men in the war, and was one of the Greeks hidden inside the [[Trojan Horse]]. During the sack of Troy, Menelaus killed [[Deiphobus]], who had married Helen after the death of Paris.

There are four versions of Menelaus's and Helen's reunion on the night of the sack of Troy:
*Menelaus sought out Helen in the conquered city. Raging at her infidelity, he raised his sword to kill her, but as he saw her weeping at his feet, begging for her life, Menelaus's wrath instantly left him. He took pity on her and decided to take her back as his wife.
*Menelaus resolved to kill Helen, but her irresistible beauty prompted him to drop his sword and take her back to his ship "to punish her at Sparta", as he claimed.<ref>''Andromache'', 629–31.</ref>
*According to the ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]]'', Menelaus raised his sword in front of the [[temple]] in the central square of Troy to kill her, but his wrath went away when he saw her rending her clothes in anguish, revealing her naked breasts.
*A similar version by [[Stesichorus]] in "Ilion's Conquest" narrated that Menelaus surrendered her to his soldiers to stone her to death, but when she ripped the front of her robes, the Achaean warriors were stunned by her beauty and the stones fell harmlessly from their hands as they stared at her.