The Discourse to the Greeks

Do not suppose, you Greeks, that my departure from your customs is unreasonable and thoughtless, for I found nothing in them that is holy or pleasing to God. The writings of your poets are records of madness and excess. Anyone who studies under your most renowned teacher faces more challenges than anyone else. First, they say Agamemnon, supporting his brother’s excessive lust, madness, and unchecked desires, willingly sacrificed even his daughter and troubled all of Greece to retrieve Helen, who had been taken by the leprous shepherd. During the war, when they captured prisoners, Agamemnon himself was captivated by Chryseis and started a feud with the son of Thetis over Briseis. And Pelides, your hero who crossed the river, defeated Troy, and conquered Hector, became the slave of Polyxena and was conquered by a dead Amazon; putting aside his god-made armor, donning a wedding gown, he became a sacrifice of love in the temple of Apollo. And the Ithacan Ulysses treated a vice as a virtue. His sailing past the Sirens proved his lack of worthy prudence, for he couldn’t trust his prudence to stop his ears. Ajax, son of Telamon, who bore the seven-layered ox-hide shield, went mad after losing the armor contest to Ulysses. I have no wish to learn such things or desire such virtue that I should believe the myths of Homer. The entire story, both the beginning and end of the Iliad and the Odyssey, revolves around a woman.