In
Greek mythology,
Menelaus (; ,
Menelaos, from < μένος· vigor, rage, power + λαός· people, "
wrath of the people") was a king of
Mycenaean (pre-
Dorian)
Sparta, the husband of
Helen of Troy, and a central figure in the
Trojan War. He was the son of
Atreus and
Aerope, brother of
Agamemnon, king of
Mycenae and, according to the
Iliad, leader of the Spartan contingent of the Greek army during the War. Prominent in both the
Iliad and
Odyssey, Menelaus was also popular in Greek vase painting and
Greek tragedy, the latter more as a hero of the Trojan War than as a member of the doomed House of
Atreus.