Therapne
Sign in to savethumb|Remains of the temple to Menelaus Therapne () was a town in ancient Laconia, within the territory of Sparta. ==Burial of Helen of Troy and Menelaus== According to Greek mythology, its name comes from a daughter of Lelex. The place was distinguished for housing the Menelaion, a temple to Menelaus, where it was believed that the bodies of Helen of Troy and Menelaus were buried. ==Sanctuary of Helen== Herodotus writes that there was a sanctuary of Helen at Therapne, and relates the tradition that a nurse went every day to that sanctuary to ask that it free a girl from her ugliness and that
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
5 sectionsContents
- Burial of Helen of Troy and Menelaus
- Sanctuary of Helen
- Connection to the Dioscuri
- Location
- References
thumb|Remains of the temple to Menelaus Therapne () was a town in ancient Laconia, within the territory of Sparta. ==Burial of Helen of Troy and Menelaus== According to Greek mythology, its name comes from a daughter of Lelex. The place was distinguished for housing the Menelaion, a temple to Menelaus, where it was believed that the bodies of Helen of Troy and Menelaus were buried. ==Sanctuary of Helen== Herodotus writes that there was a sanctuary of Helen at Therapne, and relates the tradition that a nurse went every day to that sanctuary to ask that it free a girl from her ugliness and that one day a woman appeared who caressed the hair of the girl and pronounced that she would be the most beautiful girl in Sparta, after which the same day the appearance of the girl changed from ugly to beautiful.
The lyric poet Alcman in the 7th century BCE. mentions a temple in Therapne attesting to the antiquity of the place, There was a festival at the town, which was called Meneleaeia (Μενελάεια) in honour of Menelaus and Helen.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Therapne” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
On the map
2 mapped locations