Sammons, B. (2009). BROTHERS IN THE NIGHT: AGAMEMNON & MENELAUS IN. BOOK10. OF THE ILIAD. Classical Bulletin, 85(1), 27–47.

This article explores the role of Menelaus in the Trojan War, while also analyzing the interaction and relationship between Agamemnon and Menelaus. It suggested that Menelaus is more like a moral figurehead of the Achaean expedition, while Agamemnon acts as an army commander in chief. Specifically, after Menelaus has convinced Agamemnon to conquer Troy, he seems to cede all authority over the expedition to his brother. He is not a member of Agamemnon’s inner council of foremost heroes, including Ajax and Diomedes. He also never speaks in the assembly where Agamemnon exercises his authority publicly. They seem to have no interaction. However, book 10 of the Iliad, according to the author, indicates that there are interactions that reveal the relationship between Agamemnon and Menelaus. First, that Menelaus wears a leopard skin while Agamemnon wears a lion skin shows that Menelaus is inferior to Agamemnon. Second, when both Agamemnon and Menelaus showed the feeling of terrified toward the conquer of the Troy, Nestor blamed Menelaus as a coward while praising Agamemnon as a wise man who considers every situation possible. It further indicates the inferiority of Menelaus. I realize that the role of Menelaus in the Trojan War is manipulated by Agamemnon instead of by Menelaus his own. Because Menelaus has already become a victim whose wife has been robbed by others, Agamemnon wants to use this characteristic of Menelaus as a tool to raise other heroes’ resentments and morale. It is similar to such a situation: by portraying a beggar as vulnerable and helpless, everyone will have sympathy toward him and is willing to help the beggar. This is the reason why Agamemnon delivers a lament speech to the public after seeing that Menelaus has been shot by Pandarus, a trojan. In order to maintain Menelaus’s identity as a victim, Agamemnon tries to push Menelaus back every time he wants to fight. Besides, through the conflict between Agamemnon and Achilles, we can know that Agamemnon is a person who favors absolute power. Consequently, Agamemnon will not allow Menelaus, his brother, to have the same status as him. The absence of Menelaus in most scenes is not because Menelaus is a coward, but because he is forced to be shaped as a coward by Agamemnon. This article is significant because it explores deeply into the Agamemnon-and-Menelaus relationship that the book Iliad does not obviously state. It also explains the role of Menelaus plays in the Trojan War. I realize that the bond between the brothers in that society is not that friendly and tight as I think. Besides, the warrior code that focuses on honor manipulates everyone’s behaviors at that time.

Stelow, A. (2003). The “Aristeia” of Menelaos. The Classical Journal, 104(3), 193–205. published in March.2009

This article mainly tries to fully explain the role and character of Menelaus in book 17 of Iliad, in which Menelaus tries to defend Patroclus’s corpse at any cost. Menelaus is the first man noticing the death of Patroclus. As soon as he discovered it, he killed all the enemies who want to take Patroclus’s body, while asking Antilochos to bring news of Patroclus’s death to Achilles. Menelaus decides to return to the war zone instead of going with Antilochos. According to the article, Menelaus does this because of sympathy instead of glory, as Menelaus says the words like ”painful message” and the book 17 described him as ”reluctant to leave.” Why homer singled out Menelaus for such extraordinary prominence? According to the author, there are two theories explaining this. The first explanation is that Menelaus is the only choice because other heroes, such as Ajax and Odyssey, are wounded. However, this does not explain why Aias is not chosen. The second explanation is because Patroclus and Menelaus are similarly gentle. Nevertheless, it fails to explain the central role played by Menelaus in this pivotal area. There is also an explanation saying that the ancient author likes to draw similar motifs from other poems: that Patroclus’s body is defended by Menelaus and Aias is similar to Achilles’s body is defended by Odyssey and Ajax in Aithiopis; It is a mere focus of certain character. All of these, according to the article, does not address the problem. In the author’s opinion, ”Menelaus fulfills a pivotal function in mediating the two major themes of the poem: Achilles’s wrath and the Trojan War. Menelaus is the central cause of this war and has an overriding concern about the prosecution of the war. However, Achilles has no reason to join this war previously until the death of Patroclus. By letting Menelaus defending the corpse of Patroclus, Homer draw Menelaus into Achilles’s story. That Menelaus decisively defend the corpse plants the seed of Achilles’s decision to join the war. Two heroes who have different motives are now struggling toward the same outcome: conquering the Troy. The article is unique because it tells me that the chosen of Menelaus is not a random selection; it has its purpose, which is connecting two main themes of the Iliad. In addition, the article clarifies that protecting ally’s corpse is exceptionally important, and that Patroclus’s body is defended by many heroes with high cost is one of the few unique cases. It explores one scene that one usually doesn’t care too much about, with innovative and persuasive reasons.

Olson, S. (1989). The Stories of Helen and Menelaus (Odyssey 4.240-89) and the Return.of Odysseus. The American Journal of Philology, 110(3), 387–394.

This article lists two stories relating to spying the troy told by Helen and Menelaus during a dinner party. The two stories have the same characters, Odysseus and Helen, but have distinct contents. According to Helen’s story: Helen helps Odysseus hide his identity after she discovers him in city Troy. Helen fights for the Greeks even she is in Troy alone. However, according to Menelaus: Helen fights against the Argives till the end of troy with the accompany of her Trojan lover Deiphobus. He describes Odysseus as a powerful and intelligent man who can control the people around him. When Menelaus cannot address himself after seeing his wife Helen, Odysseus helps him. These two stories are not merely the stories; they are self-justification and self-explanation. For Helen, she thinks that she does not do anything wrong and is always loving the Greek. She wants to clarify herself as a just and loyal woman. However, because Menelaus has experienced betrayal from Helen, he described Helen as an evil character in the story as a way to indicate his dissatisfaction and anger. He emphasizes his miss toward Helen by mentioning that ”Menelaus cannot address himself in the presence of Helen. ” Besides, Menelaus describes the idealized male character in the society at that time: being powerful, calm, and intelligent. It shows Menelaus’s respect toward a person like Odysseus. When talking about whether disguised Odysseus has exposed his real identity to his wife Penelope, Helen and Menelaus’s answers are also different: while Helen says that Odysseus does expose his identity, Menelaus says that Odysseus hides the identity all the times and faces the enemies alone. It reflects Menelaus’s, or even all society’s male’s, one core value: the wife-husband bond is not that reliable and solid comparing to the father-son bond, as Menelaus’s Odysseus is afraid that his wife will betray him even Penelope is faithful to Odysseus. ” It is not just the security of the individual, but that of collective male society as a whole and the values it supports that depends on the active suppression of the husband’s instinctive desire to share his secrets with his wife.” This means that every husband has the desire to tell his wife every secret he has. By limiting this desire, every husband will make society more secure with accumulated effort. Obviously, it reflects the male-dominant culture in which females should never interfere with or understand a male’s mission. It is a typical form of heroism which states that a powerful man should handle every difficulty on his own.

Cilliers, L. (1991). Menelaus’ “unnecessary baseness of character” in Euripides’ “Orestes.” Acta Classica, 34. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1298193440/

KYRIAKOU, P. (1998). MENELAUS AND PELOPS IN EUR IPIDES’ ORESTES. MNEMOSYNE, 51(3), 282–301. HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.1163/1568525982611452

SAMMONS, B. (2014). THE QUARREL OF AGAMEMNON & MENELAUS. MNEMOSYNE, 67(1), 1–27. HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.1163/1568525X-12341212