Previous
Clytemnestra
Agamemnon’s brother and the king of Sparta. Menelaos’s wife, Helen, has recently absconded to Troy with the young Trojan prince Paris. Menelaos is a jealous and prideful man obsessed with maintaining his own personal reputation. He sees his own personal honor as synonymous with the honor of his house, his lineage, and Greece as a whole—a stance which Euripides seems to decry as one that’s foolish and full of hubris. Menelaos is desperate to get his wife back from a land he sees as being ruled by “barbarians” and he will stop at nothing to get what he wants—he even wants to sacrifice his niece Iphigeneia in exchange for the blessing of the winds that will allow the Greeks to reach Troy. Eventually, after hearing Agamemnon’s impassioned lament about being trapped in the “snare of fate,” Menelaos begins to soften and see the error of his ways. He tells Agamemnon that he doesn’t want to ruin their relationship—he can find a new wife but he could never get a new brother should he lose the love of the one he has. But it is too late, and Agamemnon already feels paralyzed by the fear of what will happen among the gathered armies if he doesn’t sacrifice his daughter for the sake of Menelaos’s cause. Menelaos is, in this way, a tragic figure in spite of all his flaws: he realizes too late the folly of his ways and the impact of his words and demands, only to find that he has entangled his entire country in the pursuit of his own personal vendetta.
Menelaos Quotes in Iphigenia at Aulis
The Iphigenia at Aulis quotes below are all either spoken by Menelaos or refer to Menelaos. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Iphigeneia at Aulis
Quotes
AGAMEMNON: because Menelaos is my brother, they chose
me to be their general.
I wish they had saved the honor for someone else.
And when the whole army had mustered
here at Aulis,
the wind died. Calm. We still cannot sail.
There is only one hope of our going,
according to Kalchas,
the prophet. Iphigeneia, my daughter,
must be sacrificed to Artemis,
the deity of this place.
Then the wind will take us to Troy,
and the city will fall to us.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
CHORUS: I have crossed the narrows
of Euripos, I came sailing and I beached
at Aulis, on the sands. I left
Chalkis, my city, where the spring
of Arethousa wells up and runs flashing
down to the sea. I came
to see for myself this army of the [Greeks,]
the oar-winged ships of the heroes,
the thousand galleys
which blond Menelaos and Agamemnon of the same
great lineage sent,
as our husbands tell us,
to fetch Helen again:
Helen.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
MENELAOS: At this point you'd never murder your daughter.
Well. This same sky
watched you speak otherwise. It's true
men find this happening to them
all the time. They sweat and clamber
for power until it's theirs,
then all at once they
fall back and amount to nothing again.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
AGAMEMNON: Girl? Why do I call her a girl?
When it seems that Hades
is about to make her his wife. Oh I
pity her. I can hear her
calling out to me, "Father!
Are you going to kill me? I hope that you
and everyone you love are married like this."
And Orestes will be there too, scarcely
old enough to walk, and he will
scream cries without words,
but my heart will know what they mean.
Oh what ruin Priam's son
Paris has brought me! All this he called down
by winning the love of Helen.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
AGAMEMNON: Even if I
could escape to Argos, they would follow me there.
They'd tear the city to the ground,
even the great walls that the Cyclopes built.
You see why I'm in despair. Almighty gods, how helpless
you have made me now!
There is nothing I can do.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
AGAMEMNON: It is Greece that compels me
to sacrifice you, whatever I wish.
We are in stronger hands than our own.
Greece must be free
if you and I can make her so. Being Greeks,
we must not be subject to barbarians,
we must not let them carry off our wives.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Iphigenia at Aulis LitChart as a printable PDF.
Menelaos Quotes in Iphigenia at Aulis
The Iphigenia at Aulis quotes below are all either spoken by Menelaos or refer to Menelaos. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Iphigeneia at Aulis
Quotes
AGAMEMNON: because Menelaos is my brother, they chose
me to be their general.
I wish they had saved the honor for someone else.
And when the whole army had mustered
here at Aulis,
the wind died. Calm. We still cannot sail.
There is only one hope of our going,
according to Kalchas,
the prophet. Iphigeneia, my daughter,
must be sacrificed to Artemis,
the deity of this place.
Then the wind will take us to Troy,
and the city will fall to us.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
CHORUS: I have crossed the narrows
of Euripos, I came sailing and I beached
at Aulis, on the sands. I left
Chalkis, my city, where the spring
of Arethousa wells up and runs flashing
down to the sea. I came
to see for myself this army of the [Greeks,]
the oar-winged ships of the heroes,
the thousand galleys
which blond Menelaos and Agamemnon of the same
great lineage sent,
as our husbands tell us,
to fetch Helen again:
Helen.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
MENELAOS: At this point you'd never murder your daughter.
Well. This same sky
watched you speak otherwise. It's true
men find this happening to them
all the time. They sweat and clamber
for power until it's theirs,
then all at once they
fall back and amount to nothing again.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
AGAMEMNON: Girl? Why do I call her a girl?
When it seems that Hades
is about to make her his wife. Oh I
pity her. I can hear her
calling out to me, "Father!
Are you going to kill me? I hope that you
and everyone you love are married like this."
And Orestes will be there too, scarcely
old enough to walk, and he will
scream cries without words,
but my heart will know what they mean.
Oh what ruin Priam's son
Paris has brought me! All this he called down
by winning the love of Helen.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
AGAMEMNON: Even if I
could escape to Argos, they would follow me there.
They'd tear the city to the ground,
even the great walls that the Cyclopes built.
You see why I'm in despair. Almighty gods, how helpless
you have made me now!
There is nothing I can do.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
AGAMEMNON: It is Greece that compels me
to sacrifice you, whatever I wish.
We are in stronger hands than our own.
Greece must be free
if you and I can make her so. Being Greeks,
we must not be subject to barbarians,
we must not let them carry off our wives.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
