Four Last Songs (Vaughan Williams) song of the cycle "Menelaus." The character Menelaus appears both in Homer's "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey". Menelaus is the King of Sparta whose wife, Helen, was taken from him by Paris to Troy. Together with his brother Agamemnon, fellow ruler Odysseus, and other warriors, Menelaus launched the Trojan War to regain his wife and return her to Sparta. In "The Odyssey", Odysseus' son Telemachus visits Menelaus in attempts to obtain news of his father who has not yet returned from the war. The Vaughan Williams' drew inspiration from Menelaus' description to Telemachus of the things Odysseus must do to
Nicander of Sparta Asine in return. Nicander of Sparta Nicander (reigned from c. 750 to c. 725 BC) was king of Sparta and a member of the Eurypontid dynasty. Sparta was a dyarchy, having two kings at the same time, an Agiad and a Eurypontid. The Agiad king at the time of Nicander was Teleclus, who was allegedly assassinated by the neighbouring Messenians. Nicander was the son of the previous Eurypontid king, Charilaus and was succeeded as Eurypontid king by his own son, Theopompus of Sparta. As king, Nicander and his allies the Asinaeans carried out a raid on nearby Argolis, causing the