The records preserved from older civilizations are (as has been said
before) too fundamental in treatment to be of much value to us in the
matter of details. We know, however, that the mythology and folklore of
any race presents a more or less accurate idea of the customs of the
time. Granting an amount of exaggeration in the fables, we have still
the proof that seduction has always been a recognized practice in
Heaven. Scarcely a god has not dabbled in the art at one time or
another. In the first place they start off with the advantages of
divinity and a working knowledge of black magic.[9] They could be called
seducers in the true sense of the word only by courtesy. Jupiter, to
take an example, used methods of archaic and brutal simplicity. To be
sure, he would sometimes take the trouble to turn himself into a swan or
a bull or a shower of gold, but such exercises are second nature to a
deity and cause no delay or exhaustion. Ammon, the Egyptian god,
associated exclusively with royalty, and no one thought of calling him
to task for such moral irregularities. On the contrary, the kingly
family was proud of him.[10]
A close study of the ancient Indians reveals the fact that they deemed
seduction one of the most important of the arts, rivalling philosophy in
popularity as a study.[11] The Chinese with their customary reserve,
make no mention of such matters in official papers, but a quantity of
poetry and maxims discloses a keen Oriental interest in the topic.[12]
The Old Testament abounds in stories of seduction by means of trickery,
bribery and simple persuasion. It is safe to assume from the records
that seduction in all parts of the civilized world was at about the same
stage of primary development.
The Middle Ages show some progress. Literature was growing into an
important culture, and we have much more source material. There are
manifestations of refinement in the ancient game, but at the same time
the world was not as light-hearted about these matters as it had been in
the past. The growth of the Church, with its set ideas of these subjects
and its zeal to catalogue the sins of mankind and to deal out punishment
accordingly, gave to seduction its greatest impetus. At no other time in
history has such a vast amount of time and thought been expended on one
idea. It became a sin, and therefore a necessity.
Added to the stimulation of the churchly attitude was that of the caste
system, which made seduction the only means of communication between the
classes. The Renaissance introduced a new fashion, persuasion by means
of bribery. Kings and their courtiers led the movement by elevating
their mistresses to dizzy heights of power and wealth. The sixteenth,
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries witnessed an influx of new families
and the ascent of many a lowly maiden. Several of the noblest families
of England trace their origin to such glittering seductions.[13] Indeed
this process became at one time so notorious that it crept into folklore
and has been preserved for us in many a ballad, of which the following
is representative:
“She was poor but she was honest,
Victim of the Squire’s whim.”
Even before this period, England had introduced a variation of the art
in the form of Chivalry. This school of behaviour, while professing an
ignorance of the very rudiments of seduction, nevertheless played an
important part in its development, as is convincingly illustrated by the
old song:
“In days of old, when knights were bold
And barons held their sway,
A warrior bold, with spurs of gold,
Sang merrily his lay.”
But aside from the royal habits, there was no imagination, no finesse to
seduction. It was a stereotyped affair, a furtive irregularity, a silly
little sin. The seduction of the middle classes was a monotonous
business, popular only by reason of the danger it entailed. It has
remained for our modern world to raise it to a place of dignity among
the leading interests of all society.
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Footnote 9:
Bulfinch’s Mythology.
Footnote 10:
The Golden Bough. Sir J. Frazer.
Footnote 11:
The Kama Sutra.
Footnote 12:
Colored Stars. E. Powys Mathers. Houghton Mifflin.
Footnote 13:
Cf. The Complete Peerage.