I find it interesting that Telemachus visited Sparta on the same day as Hermione's and Megapenthes' double weddings, two whole years after Menelaus and Helen returned home. Coincidentally, this was also around the same time Orestes killed Clytemnestra.
Here's an idea for what happened during those two years:
After eighteen years away, Menelaus and Helen couldn't just return home and expect everything to continue as if nothing had happened.
Sparta may not have been dealing with usurpers or assassination plots like Ithaca and Mycenae, but that doesn't change the fact that nearly two decades had passed.
I imagine many people still resented Helen for leaving for Troy, blaming her for a war that claimed Greece's greatest heroes. Especially in her own homeland. And the same for their king who let this happen by not being there when Paris visited.
The king and queen would need to reestablish their authority, remind Sparta that they rule together, and reassure their city will stand on both legs again.
And they will do this together, side by side.
But before they could look toward the future, they had to reckon with everything that happened while they were gone.
This included reuniting with Hermione and Tyndareus, mourning Agamemnon, Leda, the Discouri and even Helen's daughter, Helen.
Agamemnon was killed by Clytemnestra, with their son exiled by her, Leda hanged herself, the Discouri were killed, and Helen died in Troy's destruction by Hecuba.
Then came another complication.
Menelaus announces that he promised Hermione to Neoptolemus during the war.
Tyndareus, who had already betrothed her to Orestes years earlier, would be upset that this was done behind his back and see it as a betrayal to his grandson.
So they send a messenger to Phocis to retrieve Orestes, only for that messenger to return days later to say that he went to Mycenae to avenge his father, and a second from said city says that he killed Aegisthus and Clytemnestra before being driven away by madness.
Whether Orestes kill them the exact day as they returned home or a couple days back, news travels slow.
And now Helen must mourn her sister.
And what follows is a search for Orestes, but for different reasons.
Menelaus wants to recover his nephew, but Tyndareus, wanting to avenge Clytemnestra like in Euripides' version, seeks to bring him to justice (or worse).
Both aren't wrong for feeling like this, but this results in a conflict over Orestes' fate if they find him.
And once it becomes clear that the search is reaching a dead end and neither side can agree on what to do if they succeed, there simply isn't much else they can do.
Which leads us to Hermione's engagement.
Despite her parents' notoriety for causing the Trojan War, Hermione would still be a highly desirable bride.
She's Tyndareus' granddaughter, Menelaus' only legitimate child, and a direct connection to the Spartan throne.
After all, Menelaus himself became king through marrying Helen.
And that leads us to her two known suitors: Orestes and Neoptolemus.
Orestes is the son of Agamemnon, heir of Mycenae, and Hermione's original fiance. But he also spent years in exile, committed matricide, thus he's stained by miasma, and he went mad and vanished.
Even if everyone agrees that the killing was justified, until he's ritually purified, he's an outcast who's forbidden from entering any house, let alone marrying into one.
Meanwhile, Neoptolemus is the opposite. He's the son of Achilles, a celebrated veteran of the Trojan War, and the killer of King Priam.
This is the sort of husband whose marriage tells Greece that Sparta remains powerful.
So which man best secured the future of Sparta and the House of Atreus?
Unfortunately, at the moment, it's Neo.
And then there's Megapenthes.
Being the son of Menelaus opens doors, but his illegitimate nature complicates marriage negotiations.
What inheritances will he receive? Will he rule any lands or provinces? What will marrying him even offer another family?
None of this hardly happens overnight.
So by the time Telemachus arrived in Sparta, all of those loose ends had finally been tied together.
Hermione's and Megapenthes' weddings have been settled. The palace is restored. Menelaus and Helen once again sit confidently upon their thrones, welcoming the young prince together as king and queen.
And Sparta is greater than ever, standing on both legs again, strong and true.
Or so it seems at the moment.
