Page 397 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

334 Bronze and Iron [1230-1160 b.c.]
Although it had been Menelaus’s life ambition to visit Egypt,
he had never intended to stay so long away from his own king­
dom of Sparta. But within a year of his arrival in Egypt, he had
received dispatches from home telling of his brother’s death.
While Agamemnon had been absent at Troy, a cousin of theirs,
Aigisthos, son of the rebel king Thyestes, had established himself
at Mycenae, with the aid of Agamemnon’s wife, Clytemnestra.
And Agamemnon had been struck down on his return and killed.
With Aigisthos holding Mycenae and dominating the Pelopon­
nese, Menelaus could not return to his kingdom without a
greater fleet at his back than he was able to raise for a campaign
which promised little in the way of booty. And all he could do
was bide his time in Egypt, keeping in touch with the resistance
movement in the Peloponnese, which was pinning its hopes to
the exiled prince Orestes, the son of Agamemnon.
In 1178 b.c. Menelaus received word that the time was ripe.
And he sent what ships he could spare north to Greece. The
following year news of the successful revolution reached him at
Tanis. Electra, Agamemnon’s daughter, who had been held al­
most a prisoner at Mycenae, had raised a faction that had been
joined by Orestes, landing secretly from the north. They had
overpowered Aigisthos’s guard and killed both Aigisthos and
Clytemnestra. And Menelaus’s fleet had been sufficient to over­
awe the allies of the usurper king and prevent any counterattack.
Next year Menelaus and Helen left Egypt and, laden with
parting gifts from friends and officials in Egypt, returned to their
kingdom of Sparta.
Menelaus was at this time fifty-four years old and felt that
the time had come to leave adventuring to younger men. With
the spoils of Troy and the considerable wealth that he had
gained in Egyptian waters, the old palace at Sparta was re­
modeled and furnished in almost Egyptian splendor. In the great
hall the twin thrones were of Egyptian manufacture, inlaid with
ivory. On the high table the drinking cups and serving platters
were of silver, and the walls were hung with priceless weapons,
the gifts of many an eastern prince, swords and shields gleaming
with silver and gold, onyx and amber. The private rooms which
led off from the dais of the great hall were furnished more com­