Menelaus 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 to marry, 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
William Menelaus previously given artworks to the Cardiff Free Library, he left the residual 36 pieces valued at £10,000 to the same institution. Today they are all part of the Welsh National art collection, and mainly hang in the National Museum Cardiff, although his portrait by Parker Hagarty is on loan to Cardiff University's engineering department. Menelaus was buried on 4 April 1882 in the churchyard at Penderyn, Rhondda Cynon Taf, in the same brick grave that had already held his wife for thirty years. William Menelaus William Menelaus (10 March 1818 – 30 March 1882) was a Scottish-born mechanical engineer, who