Burne-Jones developed only one of the three main panels in the Troy Triptych in any detail. This was the right hand scene, 'Helen captured; Troy in Flames', another instance of his choice of tragic themes in the early 1870s. The present drawing is for the figure on the right hand side of the panel, binding the hands of a female prisoner and looking up at Helen. As it is the most prominent male figure it may represent Menelaus, Helen's deserted husband, about to take his captive wife back to Sparta. In the early 1870s, Burne-Jones was particularly impressed by the art of Michelangelo and that influence is visible in the dynamic pose of the present figure.