Since Mary had left him, Schoeck had on the one hand been stilling his physical needs with numerous willing women, but on the other hand he had begun to make loud pronouncements to his male friends about the wickedness of the weaker sex. It was in early November 1923, in the midst of one of these misogynistic tirades, that Corrodi suggested the drama Penthesilea by Heinrich von Kleist (1777–1811) as an opera topic. Schoeck was immediately attracted by the idea, so Corrodi set to work on a libretto. Kleist's play is a variant of the story of Achilles and Penthesilea, the Queen of the Amazons. According to Greek myth, they met on opposite sides on the battlefield of Troy, where Achilles killed Penthesilea but fell in love with her upon seeing her dead body. In Kleist, however, Achilles wounds Penthesilea, who flees, then faints. Hecaptures her and falls in love. But in order to awaken her feelings for him, he pretends that he is in fact her prisoner when she regains consciousness. Their love scene is interrupted as the battle nears again. Penthesilea is rescued by her troops and is compelled to face the reality of her situation. Achilles now sends a message that they should meet in single combat, for he intends to give himself up to her. Convinced that he has betrayed her love, she rides out in the full panoply of battle.