Oration to the Greeks 33

This is why I was eager to show, from what you yourselves hold in honor, that our ways are sober-minded, while your customs are possessed by great madness. You who say that we talk nonsense among women and youths, virgins and old women, and who mock us for not being with you, hear the nonsense of Greek affairs. The practices of your gods are all the more foolish for being so famous, and you disgrace yourselves through your women's quarters. Lysippus cast in bronze Praxilla, who said nothing useful in her poems; Menestratus cast Learchis; Silanion, Sappho the courtesan; Naucydes, Erinna of Lesbos; Boiscus, Myrtis; Cephisodotus, Myro of Byzantium; Gomphus, Praxigoris; and Amphistratus, Cleito. Why should I speak of Anyte, Telesilla, and Mystis? The makers of the first were Euthycrates and Cephisodotus, of the second Niceratus, of the third Aristodotus. Euthycrates made Mnesiarchis of Ephesus; Silanion, Corinna; Euthycrates, Thalarchis of Argos. I was eager to mention these women so that you will not think that anything strange is done among us, and so that, comparing the practices before your eyes, you will not mock the women among us who pursue philosophy. Sappho was a lewd, love-crazed woman who sings of her own licentiousness; but all our women are chaste, and our virgins at their distaffs speak of the things of God more earnestly than that girl of yours. Be ashamed, then, you who turn out to be disciples of women, yet mock the women who live among us and the assembly they belong to. What noble thing did Glaucippe introduce to you, who gave birth to a monster, as her statue shows, cast in bronze by Niceratus son of Euctemon, an Athenian by birth? If she conceived an elephant, why should Glaucippe enjoy public honor? Praxiteles and Herodotus made Phryne the courtesan for you, and Euthycrates cast in bronze Panteuchis, who conceived by a seducer. Deinomenes by his art saw to it that Besantis, queen of the Paeonians, would be remembered because she bore a black child. I condemn Pythagoras too, who set up Europa on the bull, and you, who have honored the accuser of Zeus because of his art. I laugh too at the skill of Myron, who made a heifer and on it a Victory, because by carrying off Agenor's daughter he won the prize for adultery and lust. Herodotus of Olynthus made Glycera the courtesan and Argeia the harpist. Bryaxis set up Pasiphae, and by commemorating her licentiousness you all but choose that the women of today should be like her. There was a wise woman called Melanippe; for this reason Lysistratus made her statue. And yet you refuse to believe that there are wise women among us!