Sparta

In Odyssey IV Telemachus and Peisistratus arrive at Sparta during a wedding feast and are received with generous hospitality. The palace is rich with bronze, gold, amber, and ivory, and Menelaus speaks with longing about Odysseus and about the war. Helen recognizes Telemachus and tells stories about his father.

The visit is one of the Odyssey’s models of good hospitality, but it is also a lesson in the cost of the war. Menelaus has returned with wealth and a wife, and he still grieves for the companions he lost.

Sparta is Helen’s native kingdom, and her return there with Menelaus closes the story that began with her departure. The Odyssey presents the couple as settled and prosperous, but the poem does not pretend that the past is forgotten. Helen’s drug, her stories, and Menelaus’s memories all keep Troy present.

Sparta is therefore both a happy ending and an ambiguous one. The household has survived, but the war has left its marks on the people who live in it.