Menelaus Paris at Sparta; his retrieval of Patroclus’s corpse; and his reunion with Helen. Menelaus appears as a character in a number of 5th-century Greek tragedies: Sophocles’ "Ajax", and Euripides’ "Andromache", "Helen", "Orestes", "Iphigenia at Aulis", and "The Trojan Women". Menelaus In Greek mythology, Menelaus (; , "Menelaos", from μένος "vigor, rage, power" and λαός "people," "wrath of the people") was a king of Mycenaean (pre-Dorian) Sparta, the husband of Helen of Troy, and the son of Atreus and Aerope. According to the "Iliad", Menelaus was a central figure in the Trojan War, leading the Spartan contingent of the Greek army,
Siege of Sparta the Isthmus of Corinth in 265 BC. The defeat was so disastrous for Sparta that they would not rise to be a regional power until the reign of Cleomenes III thirty years later. Siege of Sparta The Siege of Sparta took place in 272 BC and was a battle fought between Epirus, led by King Pyrrhus, ( 297–272 BC) and an alliance consisting of Sparta, under the command of King Areus I ( 309–265 BC) and his heir Acrotatus, and Macedon. The battle was fought at Sparta and ended in a Spartan-Macedonian victory. Following his defeat in Italy by the