The original meaning of “seduction” was “to persuade a vassal, servant, soldier, etc. to desert his allegiances or service.” The OED dates that first usage from 1477, and it was only in 1560 that “seduction” came to be used also as inducing a woman to surrender her chastity. As usage evolved, “seduction” was generalized to mean “being persuaded to abandon, or betray, a commitment.” And also from early on, the term came to be used to cover “a cause of error; an allurement.” By 1782 we have “seductive” as “tending to lead astray,” and a decent gender balance was restored in 1803 with the appearance of “seductress.”

Seduction is thus a central, indeed in certain respects, thecentral, idea, in political life. It signifies a course of action deliberately designed by one or more interested agents to undermine and replace some established loyalty—moral, political, sexual —and to substitute for it a different rule of conduct. The outcome of seduction in medieval times was clearly treason: the follower betrayed the leader. He became a traitor. Such conduct threatened the moral dissolution of society. Modern Western societies are not based on such loyalties, and they have little place for the moral machinery of oaths of allegiance. A commitment or a promise is, with us, a much looser affair than in earlier times. Nevertheless, loyalty remains a central part in our lives. We are loyal to our friends, our lovers, and our families, and in some areas loyal as well to