It was named by the Eighth Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition, 1963–64, after Canopus, pilot of Menelaus, the king of Sparta.
Alector of Sparta, son of Argeus and Hegesandra, father of Iphiloche (or Echemela), who married Megapenthes, son of Menelaus.
She was renamed HMS Menelaus in 1941, and was finally sold in 1948 and broken up at Llanelly.
The word Menelas, the Doric dialect form of Menelaus, is written next to one of the figures, forming the oldest known inscription in Attic art.