[image ALT: Much of my site will be useless to you if you've got the images turned off!]
mail:
Bill Thayer

[image ALT: Cliccare qui per una pagina di aiuto in Italiano.]
Italiano

[Link to a series of help pages]
Help
[Link to the next level up]
Up
[Link to my homepage]
Home

 p749  Menelaeia

Article by Leonhard Schmitz, Ph.D., F.R.S.E., Rector of the High School of Edinburgh
on p749 of

William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D.:
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875.

MENELAEIA (μενελάεια), a festival celebrated at Therapnae in Laconia, in honour of Menelaus and Helen, who were believed to be buried there (Paus. III.19 § 9). Menelaus was to the Lacedaemonians what Nestor was to the Messenians, a model of a wise and just king, and hence they raised him to the rank of one of the great gods (Isocrat. Panath. p247B), and honoured him and Helena with annual and solemn sacrifices, which continued to be offered in the days of Isocrates (Helen. Encom. p218D). These solemnities are sometimes called Ἑλένια (see Creuzer, Symbol. III p38).


[image ALT: Valid HTML 4.01.]

Page updated: 12 Sep 07