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Literary notes about seduce (AI summary)

The word “seduce” is deployed with striking versatility in literature, embodying both literal and metaphorical nuances. In some works, it conveys the physical or emotional act of enticing someone into a relationship, as when a lover is courted or a virtuous person is led astray (e.g., [1], [2], [3]). In other contexts, writers employ it more abstractly to describe the attraction of ideas or the manipulation of loyalties, suggesting a subtle, often perilous, pull toward error or corruption (e.g., [4], [5], [6]). Classical sources and lexicons even present it as equivalent to leading or drawing one away, thereby linking its etymological roots with the broader concept of persuasion (e.g., [7], [8], [9]). This multifaceted usage underscores ‘seduce’ as a concept that traverses the realms of desire, deception, and ideological influence.
  1. [116] When a man is endeavouring to seduce one woman, he should not attempt to seduce any other at the same time.
    — from The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana by Vatsyayana
  2. In Greece he had fallen over head and ears in love with her mother, had tried to seduce her, and, failing that, married her.
    — from The Romance of Lust: A classic Victorian erotic novel by Anonymous
  3. She is really a delicious woman; I should have been tempted to seduce her myself thirty years ago.”
    — from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova
  4. They appear, therefore, to seduce the mind {371} into incorrectly interpreting them as typical.
    — from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross
  5. After a fruitless negotiation, in which the two princes attempted to seduce the fidelity of each other's adherents, they had recourse to arms.
    — from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
  6. His last resource was an attempt to seduce the loyalty of the besiegers.
    — from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
  7. ἀπήχθην, to lead away, conduct; met. to seduce.
    — from A Greek-English Lexicon to the New Testament by William Greenfield
  8. to be deceived, err, mistake, Mat. 22.29; to seduce, delude, Jno. 7.12; pass.
    — from A Greek-English Lexicon to the New Testament by William Greenfield
  9. L.G. Ἀποσπάω, ῶ, ( ἀπό & σπάω ) f. άσω, to draw away from, to draw out or forth, Mat. 26.51; to draw away, seduce, Ac. 20.30.
    — from A Greek-English Lexicon to the New Testament by William Greenfield

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