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
Mentes (King of the Taphians) at Pylos and King Menelaus of Sparta, to make inquiries as to the whereabouts of his father. Upon his return, but he should kill the suitors, either by stealth or publicly. Although Mentes had hardly any appearances in Greek myths of earlier antiquity, he became a symbol of a guardian and a mentor. Later, his name got a derogatory flavor and became a symbol of a sinister messenger. He is not to be confused with Mentor, the elderly friend of Odysseus in whose care Telemachus was placed during the Trojan War. To add to the possible confusion, Athena also takes