 They sought refuge there on their flight from the jealous Menelaus, but were rebuffed by Thonis, the watchman at the entrance to the Nile.Alternatively it was believed that Menelaus and Helen had stayed there, accommodated by the noble Egyptian Thon and his wife Polydamna.The 2nd century BC Greek poet Nicander wrote that Menelaus’s helmsman, Canopus, was bitten by a viper on the sands of Thonis.