Introduction
Menelaus was the son of Atreus and younger brother of Agamemnon, who became king of Sparta through his marriage to Helen, the most sought-after bride in Greece.
Family
The Cause of the War
When the Trojan prince Paris, a guest in Menelaus's own household, took Helen back to Troy with him, Menelaus invoked the Oath of Tyndareus — a pact sworn by all of Helen's former suitors to defend her marriage — to raise the great Achaean coalition that besieged Troy for ten years. Menelaus fought prominently in the war, including a single combat against Paris, and was reunited with Helen after Troy's fall; traditions differ on whether he intended to kill her for her betrayal, but most agree he forgave her and took her home to Sparta.
As with all figures of Greek heroic legend, sources diverge on many particulars; the account above follows the most widely transmitted classical tradition.