Menelaus Paris the most beautiful woman in all the world. After concluding a diplomatic mission to Sparta during the latter part of which Menelaus was absent to attend the funeral of his maternal grandfather Catreus in Crete, Paris ran off to Troy with Helen despite his brother Hector's prohibition. Invoking the oath of Tyndareus, Menelaus and Agamemnon raised a fleet of a thousand ships and went to Troy to secure Helen's return; the Trojans refused, providing a "casus belli" for the Trojan War. Homer's "Iliad" is the most expansive source for Menelaus’s exploits during the Trojan War. In Book 3, Menelaus
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.