Menelaion, Sparta
Site of the Menelaion
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 Shown within Greece
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| Location | Sparti, Greece |
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| Region | Lakonia |
| Coordinates | 37°3′54″N 22°27′10.8″E / 37.06500°N 22.453000°ECoordinates: 37°3′54″N 22°27′10.8″E / 37.06500°N 22.453000°E |
| Type | Sanctuary |
| History | |
| Founded | Approximately 1450 BCE |
| Abandoned | Late Helladic IIIA1 |
| Site notes | |
| Management | Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities of Lakonia |
| Website | Greek Ministry of Culture |
The archaeological site of Menelaion (translit. Menelaeion) (Ancient Greek: Μενελάειον) is located approximately 5 km from the modern city of Sparti. The geographical structure of this site includes a hill complex (Northern hill, Menelaion, Profitis Ilias and Aetos). The archaic name of the place is mentioned as Therapne (Ancient Greek: Θεράπνη).
Fluvial deposits of the valley of Eurotas, mild climate and low hills which protect the area, are forming the general geographical and geological context of the archaeological site which revealed few Middle Helladic findings on the Northern hill and major settlement of the Mycenaean period in the Menelaion.
It is considered that Helen appeared initially in Homeric epic poetry, circa 8th century BCE. Besides epos, she appears in lyric poetry, in history, in theatrical plays, even in rhetorical exercises. Helen, and her husband Menelaus, belong to a large group of heroes and heroines worshiped throughout Greece. These heroes, heroines and their cults have already been studied in classical archeology and philology and shape the ideology of a particular period of worshipping heroes in ancient Greece
The earliest literary sources do not use the term hero with the meaning used in subsequent periods, or refer to heroic cult directly. Archaeological evidence indicates that heroic cult existed in some form at the end of the Early Iron Age. Since eighth century BCE, there is a small and scattered group of sancturies, associated with epic or mythical heroes and identified by inscribed dedications, in most cases after the foundation of worship. Such heroes are Helen and Menelaus to Sparta, Odysseus in Cave Loizou at beach Polis to Ithaca and Agamemnon at Mycenae.
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