Menelaus in the context of "Helen of Troy"

The Trojan War was a legendary conflict in Greek mythology that took place around the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. The war was waged by the Achaeans (Greeks) against the city of Troy after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology, and it has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably Homer's Iliad. The core of the Iliad (Books II – XXIII) describes a period of four days and two nights in the tenth year of the decade-long siege of Troy; the Odyssey describes the journey home of Odysseus, one of the war's heroes. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of epic poems, which have survived through fragments. Episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets including Virgil and Ovid.

The ancient Greeks believed that Troy was located near the Dardanelles and that the Trojan War was a historical event of the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. By the mid-nineteenth century AD, both the war and the city were widely seen as non-historical, but in 1868, the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann met Frank Calvert, who convinced Schliemann that Troy was at what is now Hisarlık in modern-day Turkey. On the basis of excavations conducted by Schliemann and others, this claim is now accepted by most scholars.

In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (/æɡəˈmɛmnɒn/ ; Ancient Greek: Ἀγαμέμνων Agamémnōn) was a king of Mycenae who commanded the Achaeans during the Trojan War. He was the son (or grandson) of King Atreus and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of Clytemnestra, and the father of Iphigenia, Iphianassa, Electra, Laodike, Orestes and Chrysothemis. Legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, thought to be different names for the same area. Agamemnon was killed upon his return from Troy by Clytemnestra, or in an older version of the story, by Clytemnestra's lover Aegisthus.

In Greek mythology, Hermione (/hɜːrˈmaɪ.əni/; Ancient Greek: Ἑρμιόνη, romanized: Hermiónē [hermi.ónɛː]) was the daughter of Menelaus, king of Sparta, and his wife, Helen of Troy. Prior to the Trojan War, Hermione had been betrothed by Tyndareus, her grandfather, to her cousin Orestes, son of her uncle, Agamemnon. According to Apollodorus, she was nine years old when her mother eloped with Paris, son of the Trojan king Priam.

During the war, Menelaus promised her to Achilles' son, Neoptolemus. After the war ended, he sent Hermione away to the city of Phthia (the home of Peleus and Achilles), where Neoptolemus was staying. The two were married, yet, soon afterwards, Neoptolemus traveled to Delphi in order to exact vengeance against Apollo for having caused his father's death, only to be killed there. With Neoptolemus dead, Hermione was free to marry Orestes, with whom she had a son, Tisamenus.

In Greek mythology, Nicostratus (Ancient Greek: Νικόστρατος) is a son of Menelaus, king of Mycenaean Sparta. He was known to Hesiod and epic poet Cinaethon. His name means 'Victorious Army' and suggests that his birth came after the Trojan War.

In Greek mythology, Atreus (Ancient Greek: Ἀτρεύς, [a.trěu̯s] lit. 'fearless') was a king of Mycenae in the Peloponnese, the son of Pelops and Hippodamia, and the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus. His descendants became known collectively as the Atreidae (Ancient Greek: Ἀτρείδαι Atreidai).

Atreus and his brother Thyestes were exiled by their father for murdering their half-brother Chrysippus in their desire for the throne of Olympia. They took refuge in Mycenae, where they ascended to the throne in the absence of King Eurystheus, who was fighting the Heracleidae. Eurystheus had meant for their stewardship to be temporary, but it became permanent after his death in battle, which ended the rule of the Perseid dynasty in Mycenae.

In Greek mythology, Aerope (Ancient Greek: Ἀερόπη) was a Cretan princess as the daughter of Catreus, king of Crete. She was the sister of Clymene, Apemosyne and Althaemenes. After an oracle said he would be killed by one of his children, Catreus gave Aerope to Nauplius to be sold abroad. Nauplius spared her, and she became the wife of Atreus or Pleisthenes (or both). By most accounts, she is the mother of Agamemnon and Menelaus. While the wife of Atreus, she became the lover of his brother Thyestes, and gave Thyestes the golden lamb that allowed him to become king of Mycenae.

Alector (/əˈlɛktər/; Ancient Greek: Ἀλέκτωρ) refers to more than one person in classical mythology and history:

• Alector, son of Magnes and Meliboea, eponyms of Magnesia and the town of Meliboea respectively.
• Alector, the Boeotian father of Leitus. Homer calls him "Alectryon", and Diodorus "Electryon", naming him among the sons of Itonus. According to Tzetzes, Alector was also the father of Clonius, Arcesilaus and Prothoenor (his nephews according to Diodorus) by different mothers: he is said to have fathered Leitus with Polybule, Arcesilaus with Cleobule, Prothoenor with Arteis, and Clonius with Acteis.
• Alector, an Elean prince as the son of King Epeius, and brother of Hyrmine. Later on, he succeeded his father on the throne of Elis but in fear of the overlordship of King Pelops of Pisa, he summoned Phorbas from Olenus to his aid and gave his new ally a share of the kingdom. By Phorbas’ daughter, Diogeneia, Alector became father of Amarynceus.
• Alector, the Argive son of Anaxagoras and father of King Iphis of Argos.
• Alector of Sparta, son of Argeus (son of Pelops) and Hegesandra, daughter of King Amyclas. He has two brothers, Melanion and Boethoos. Alector was the father of Iphiloche (or Echemela), who married Megapenthes, son of Menelaus.