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
Hippomedon of Sparta Hippomedon of Sparta Hippomedon of Sparta (3rd-century BC) was the cousin of Agis IV in Sparta. Hippomedon was instrumental in gaining for his father Agesilaus a powerful position under Agis, but Agesilaus mismanaged affairs and they were exiled. Subsequently Hippomedon was appointed as governor of the cities of Thrace which were subject to Ptolemy III Euergetes. Hippomedon was a son of Agesilaus, the uncle of Agis IV. He must have been older than his cousin Agis, as he is said by Plutarch to have already distinguished himself on many occasions in war when the young king first began to engage