Kyritzes, a pupil of Psellos, said he would provoke a wasp by criticising him. Despite attacks by Psellos, he felt he was emerging from his master's shadow, particularly in his speciality of law. Psellos, furious at Kyritzes' letter, attacked it for plagiarism, imprecise wording and inappropriate images; he told Kyritzes to return as his pupil, but claimed to have taken his words seriously and given a model reply. In another letter, he first compared his own art with painting - e.g. under-drawing in his logoi. Then he criticised Kyritzes' antilogia: in philosophy, why oppose Psellos? Law was Kyritzes' best subject. In rhetoric he followed Demosthenes, whom Psellos disliked. In a third letter, after speaking of antilogia, a long complaint (not without bitterness) that Kyritzes called him a wasp; links between pupil, teacher and wasps were explored, concluding that Kyritzes had roused against himself not a wasp but a lion