The Menelaion, Sparta

The archaeological site of Menelaion (translit. Menelaeion) 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.
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