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
Sparta (mythology) Villages and armies would often shout her name before entering battle representing what they were fighting for. Sparta (mythology) In Greek mythology, Sparta (Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, "Spártā"; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, "Spártē") was the daughter of King Eurotas of Laconia. She was wife of King Lacedaemon (also her uncle) by whom she became the mother of Amyclas and Eurydice, wife of King Acrisius of Argos. The city of Sparta is said to have been named after her; however, the city was often called Lacedaemon as well. The two names were used interchangeably. Sparta was represented on a sacrificial tripod at Amyclae.