Menelaus biography

Greek mathematician and astronomer (c. 70–140)

Menelaus of Alexandria (; Ancient Greek: Μενέλαος ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς, Menelaos ho Alexandreus; c. 70 – 140 CE) was a Greekmathematician and astronomer, the first to recognize geodesics on a curved surface as natural analogs of straight lines.

Life and works

Although very little is known about Menelaus's life, it is supposed that he lived in Rome, where he probably moved after having spent his youth in Alexandria. He was called Menelaus of Alexandria by both Pappus of Alexandria and Proclus, and a conversation of his with Lucius, held in Rome, is recorded by Plutarch.

Ptolemy (2nd century CE) also mentions, in his work Almagest (VII.3), two astronomical observations made by Menelaus in Rome in January of the year 98. These were occultations of the stars Spica and Beta Scorpii by the moon, a few nights apart. Ptolemy used these observations to confirm precession of the equinoxes, a phenomenon that had been discovered by Hipparchus in the 2nd century BCE.

In the 10th-century Kitāb al-Fihrist [The Book Catalogue] by Ibn al-Nadīm, six books by Menelaus are mentioned: the Book of Spherical Propositions (Sphaerica), On the Knowledge of the Weights and Distribution of Different Bodies, The Elements of Geometry in three books, and The Book on the Triangle. Only the first of these, Sphaerica, survives today in Arabic translation. Composed of three books, it deals with the geometry of the sphere and its application in astronomical measurements and calculations. The book introduces the concept of spherical triangle (figures formed of three great circle arcs, which he named "trilaterals") and proves Menelaus' theorem on collinearity of points on the edges of a triangle (which may have been previously known) and its analog for spherical triangles. It was later translated by the sixteenth century astronomer and mathematician Francesco

Menelaus was King of Sparta during the 13th century BC. The Trojan prince Paris of Troy's elopement with his wife Helen led to the Trojan War.

Biography[]

Menelaus was the son of Atreus and Aerope and the brother of Agamemnon, and he and his brother were exiled after his uncle Thyestes usurped the throne of Mycenae. With the help of King Tyndareus of Sparta, they later deposed Thyestes, and, while Agamemnon became the new King of Mycenae, Menelaus became King of Sparta after Tyndareus abdicated. He went on to marry Tyndareus' stepdaughter Helen, and they had a daughter, Hermione. However, Helen ran off with the visiting Trojan prince Paris of Troy due to her dissatisfaction with her marriage to a much older man, leading to Menelaus convincing Agamemnon to assemble the Greek states and declare war on Troy. Menelaus himself soundly defeated the Trojan warrior Paris in a duel before Hector helped him escape, and Menelaus went on to slay eight Trojans during the war. During the sack of Troy, Menelaus slew Deiphobus and recaptured Helen, taking her back to Sparta with him. He was unable to have any children with her due to their strained marriage, and he later fathered Megapenthes and Nicostratus by slave women.

Gallery[]

King of Sparta, husband of Helen of Troy

For other uses, see Menelaus (disambiguation).

In Greek mythology, Menelaus (; Ancient Greek: ΜενέλαοςMenelaos, 'wrath of the people', from Ancient Greek μένος (menos) 'vigor, rage, power' and λαός (laos) 'people') was a Greek king of Mycenaean (pre-Dorian) Sparta. According to the Iliad, the Trojan war began as a result of Menelaus's wife, Helen, fleeing to Troy with the Trojan prince Paris. Menelaus was a central figure in the Trojan War, leading the Spartan contingent of the Greek army, under his elder brother Agamemnon, king of Mycenae. 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.

Description

In the account of Dares the Phrygian, Menelaus was described as "of moderate stature, auburn-haired, and handsome. He had a pleasing personality."

Family

Menelaus was a descendant of Pelops son of Tantalus. He was the younger brother of Agamemnon, and the husband of Helen of Troy. According to the usual version of the story, followed by the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, Agamemnon and Menelaus were the sons of Atreus, king of Mycenae, and Aerope, daughter of the Cretan king Catreus. However, according to another tradition, Agamemnon and Menelaus were the sons of Atreus's son Pleisthenes, with their mother being Aerope, Cleolla, or Eriphyle. According to this tradition Pleisthenes died young, with Agamemnon and Menelaus being raised by Atreus. Agamemnon and Menelaus had a sister Anaxibia (or Astyoche) who married Strophius, the son of Crisus.

According to the Odyssey, Menelaus had only one child by Helen, a daughter named Hermione; and an illegitimate son, Megapenthes, by a slave. Other sources mention other sons of Menel

Biography

In your presence, my dear Menelaus, I am ashamed to confute a mathematical proposition, the foundation, as it were, on which rests the subject of catoptrics. Yet it must be said that the proposition, "All reflection occurs at equal angles" is neither self evident nor an admitted fact.

He lived before Ptolemy, since the latter makes mention of him. He composed: "The Book of Spherical Propositions", "On the Knowledge of the Weights and Distribution of Different Bodies" ... Three books on the "Elements of Geometry", edited by Thabit ibn Qurra, and "The Book on the Triangle". Some of these have been translated into Arabic.