the.com/seductress
a woman armed with eye contact and the patience to let you ruin yourself.
means A woman who deliberately and skillfully entices someone into desire, often toward something unwise.
from From the Latin 'seducere,' to lead astray — built from 'se-' (apart, aside) and 'ducere' (to lead), the same 'ducere' that gives us 'conduct' and 'duke.' So the literal image is of being quietly led off the proper path. The '-tress' ending is the feminine suffix (as in 'actress,' 'temptress'), grafted on through French and used to mark the doer as a woman.
- ancient archetype
- Cleopatra seduced two Roman rulers, not just one
- original sin
- Eve gets blamed for the entire human condition
- war weapon
- Mata Hari spied using charm, executed by firing squad
- deadly myth
- Sirens lured sailors to death with song alone
- word origin
- from Latin meaning to lead astray
cleopatra — egyptian pharaoh who seduced julius caesar and mark antony, 48-30 bce
mata hari — dutch exotic dancer and spy who seduced military officers in wwi, executed 1917
madame de pompadour — mistress of louis xv of france, wielded political power at versailles 1745-1764