Odyssey 4.569 · Book 4, lines 569–570
Because you have Helen
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οὕνεκʼ ἔχεις Ἑλένην καί σφιν γαμβρὸς Διός ἐσσι. ὣς εἰπὼν ὑπὸ πόντον ἐδύσετο κυμαίνοντα.
all because you have Helen, and in their eyes you are the son-in-law of Zeus. So saying, he sank down beneath the surging sea.
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The setting
Proteus gives the reason for Menelaus's unique fate, then vanishes. Menelaus is spared death not for his own deeds but for his marriage: Helen is a daughter of Zeus, which makes Menelaus the god's son-in-law. With the prophecy done, the sea-god slips back under the waves.
A note on this passage
The reason is almost blunt: Menelaus earns Elysium by marriage, not merit. Because Helen is Zeus's daughter, Menelaus is γαμβρὸς Διός, the god's son-in-law, and that kinship-by-wedding is enough to lift him out of death.
There is a fine irony in it. Helen is the woman whose flight caused the whole war, the deaths of Menelaus's friends, and the ruin the poem keeps mourning — and she is also, in the end, his ticket to paradise. The same marriage is his wound and his reward. Then Proteus is simply gone, back under the surging sea: the god delivers the truth and does not stay to discuss it.
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