His story is recounted in Description of Greece, a second-century work by Greek traveller and geographer Pausanias.
Menestratus lived in Thespiae, where he met and became lovers with a man named Cleostratus.
When the lot fell to Cleostratus, Menestratus devised a trick in order to save his lover from such fate.
In both cases a horrifying beast terrorises a place, and a man chooses to confront it in the stead of their love interests, who are the intended sacrificial victims.
The lovers being of the same sex is noted to be a rare variant among the many versions of the dragon-slaying fairytale trope.