Menelaus Tyndareus and Leda abdicated the thrones. Menelaus and Helen had a daughter Hermione as supported, for example, by Sappho, whilst some variations of the myth suggest they had three sons as well: Aithiolas, Maraphius, and Pleisthenes. Their 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. Other archaeologists consider that Pellana is too far away from other Mycenaean centres to have been the "capital of Menelaus". According to legend, in a return for awarding her a golden apple inscribed "to the fairest," Aphrodite promised
Menelaus (son of Lagus) when Demetrius Poliorcetes arrived in Cyprus with a powerful fleet and army. Unable to contend with this formidable antagonist in the open field, Menelaus drew together all his forces, and shut himself up within the walls of Salamis, which he prepared to defend to the utmost. But having risked an action under the walls of the town, he was defeated with much loss; and Demetrius pressed the siege with his wonted vigour. Menelaus, however, succeeded in burning his battering engines; and by the most strenuous exertions, made good his defence until the arrival of Ptolemy himself, with a powerful fleet,