Temptresses, famous throughout mythology. Alluring. Powerful. Wish-fulfillment fantasy throughout much of their use. But what exactly are they? Let’s begin with that.

And, no, Mrs. Fields doesn’t count with her box of cookies after you fail your whole, “New year, new me,” fitness challenge two and a half days into the new year. Okay, maybe she does. Those cookies are awfully tempting. But let’s go back further in time to understand the trope and role of the temptress through our myths, and then some uses in fiction—the good, and the bad. 

The Temptress has often been shown as a femme fatale of supernatural origin or ability throughout mythology. Someone meant to lure the hero off course. To distract them, seduce them, and keep them from their quest and or attaining greater power. A sort of test/challenge to the hero’s will. And the hero often succumbs to the bodily temptation and allure. At first, at least. 

Many are probably familiar with the history of fairy queens kidnapping or seducing young men. The Greeks have the sirens, luring young sailors to their doom with beguiling songs and supernatural beauty. In South Asian myths we have the apsara (akin to the beautiful Greek nymphs and Western fairies). Cultures across the world seem to have a thing for beautiful supernatural women, and plot points about them seducing the young hero. Is there a point to this beyond the surface level wish-fulfillment? 

Yes... and no. 

At the surface, it is what it looks like. Let’s not hide that. But deeper down, it is usually about the hero succumbing to temptation and overcoming it. The stories of Jesus and in fact Buddha also deal with overcoming other types of temptation: things that appeal to senses of power, pride, and the like. The bodily temptations of food/hunger. Even ideals of worship—glory. 

Temptation and overcoming it are emotional beats that appeal to us as a species. We want to be better than what we’re told our vices might be or are. We want to see heroes overcome them. However, one of the most famous beats for that just so happens to be: boy meets magical girl. Magical girl seduces him. So, let’s start at the beginning. Hop into the way back machine and let us return to the Epic of Gilgamesh.

NUMBER 1: 

The Temptress formerly known as Ianna, then Ishtar, also Lilith: Ianna is the Summerian goddess of love, war, fertility, and sex. Over time, she would become indirectly known/linked to the Akkadians as Ishtar, later to Greek Aphrodite, the Roman Venus, the Hittite Sauska, and also as Lillith to the Hittites, Egyptians, Israelites. But her story begins in the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian epic in where she tried to unsuccessfully seduce him in what became an inner contest for our flawed protagonist between giving into his pride, or his lust. In the end, his pride and vanity won out. He rebuffed her advances, knowing full-well she had a fickle reputation for eventually discarding/using past lovers. 

Gilgamesh had a goal and love for a reputation for invincibility, something he did not want negatively affected by Ianna. But the temptress here was to subvert the protagonist’s goal, will, reputation, or anything along those lines. 

NUMBER 2: 

Circe: One of the more notable and famous examples of a temptress. Similar usage in many ways, however. Circe, much like Ianna, is a beautiful goddess who shows up in Homer’s The Odyssey. She is an enchantress (in more than one way) living on the Greek island of Aeaea. She lives within a dangerous and dense wood full of magic and prowling beasts such as lions and wolves, who, for the most part, are rather calm and not a threat to her. 

She offers the crew of Odysseus, our hero, food and rest, all tainted with magic potions that soon turns many of the men into animals under her control. Does this sound familiar? Do not take food from the fair-folk. But that’s another trope we’ll get into another time. But, seriously, stranger danger, don’t take food from people you don’t know, especially magical goddesses in the woods. 

Uber Eats has entered the chat?

Anyways, eventually our war hero succumbs to Circe’s beauty and welcome invitation to bed with her and he spends time on her island, even siring sons with her. His quest to return home slowly slips away until he finally decides to leave. 

But the quest could have been undone then and there.

We see this also nymph Calypso and Odysseus in where she detains him for seven years, even promising him mortality if he stays.

Then later with the sirens.

The Odyssey is in fact one of the uber epics focused on boy has hard time saying no to beautiful women and continually forgets what he’s supposed to be doing—succumbing to, and eventually overcoming temptation. 

But it is also really heavy on the: beautiful women are temptation tools, even goddesses. This notably includes what is known as the “Meeting the Goddess” and “Boon of the Goddess” tropes, both self-explanatory, but in where the hero meets a magical strong feminine character, getting some piece of advice in the moment, and perhaps later, a macguffin of sorts to help him on his quest. 

My favorite counter and positive example of all three of these in a singular moment is best represented by J. R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring’s movie adaptation (because it’s likely more of you have seen that than the read the novel). Frodo meets Galadriel (every bit a goddess) in the dense and magical woodlands of her home. However, instead of tempting our Hobbit simply as being a lusty magical woman, she offers him a reprieve. To ease his burden after Frodo sees what could happen should the quest fail. Our hero has a chance to offer her the One Ring and be free.

But this is a temptation of two parts. Because Galadriel in turn is tempted by the power of the ring and in the hopes that she would use it for good (much like Gandalf), but she knows all-too-well its potential for corruption and resists in turn. Here we see a powerful goddess archetype also be seduced in turn, but not by bodily promise, but power. Something that goes two ways equally, and both pass the test. At the end of this, the goddess Frodo has met also gives him (and his companions) boons! Magical cloaks to hide them, and a magical light. 

It’s a wonderful example of how to write temptation (across characters/the board) without relying on how it’s always been done that turns a powerful character into a young wish-fulfillment fantasy only. 

NUMBER 3: 

Menaka: The legendary apsara (celestial/divine nymph) from South Asian mythology. She was born during the churning of the oceans by the devas and asuras. A being most mesmerizing and alluring across three worlds. So much so that later, Indra, king of the gods, would task her with seducing a mortal sage, Vishvamitra.

Why? Well, Vishvamitra was on the path to be a greater ascetic, a powerful magician who sought to even create his own heaven. Terrified by this idea, Indra orders Menaka to seduce the sage and throw him off his path and break his concentration. She successfully stirs his passion and lust, however, plot twist: she fell in love with him in turn, birthing their son. 

NUMBER 4: 

The Fairy Queen: Ah, fairies. You’ve met one queen you’ve met them all. Let’s go to the story of Thomas the Rhymer. He’s a young, full of himself, and prodigious bard. One day whilst out a walkin’, he comes across the Eildon tree, and wouldn’t you know it, he happens to be carried away by the Queen of Elfland or Fair Elfland which is assumed to be the Fairyland. She seduces him and he spends a great while in her company...getting to know her if you will. After finally leaving her, he also receives some gifts (oh hi, meeting the goddess and boon of the goddess story beat!): the coat of even cloth, velvet green shoes, and a tongue that can never lie.

The last one is kind of the pits for a bard, because... well, they usually are great liars. Rest in peace career?

This is a trope we see later continuing through many Western tales and poetry. We have La Belle Dame sans Merci, the poem by English poet, John Keats. Its name translates to: The Beautiful Lady without Mercy. In it, a young knight is cursed to a miserable life after he is seduced by a fairy by her inhumanly beautiful eyes and voice. This fairy inspired many artists to later paint her representation in this story.

Paint me like one of your French... erhm, fairies? (The poem is inspired by a poem La Belle Dame sans Mercy on courtly love by the French Alain Chartier)

But fairies don’t stop there. Ohhhh, no. Most of storytelling derived from the west has a love affair with the equally and supernaturally lovely, alluring, and possibly destructive fae/elves. The idea of the beautiful Fairy or Elven Queen exists in modern fiction, employed by craftsman such as Gene Wolfe in his, The Knight, book one of The Wizard Knight duology. Young Abel, the protagonist, meets the supernatural queen who, after getting to know each other (wink wink), she turns him into a man! 

Literally and... figuratively. 

NUMBER 5: 

Delilah: Hey there, Delilah, what’s it like seducing Samson and ruining his life? Delilah is a temptress from the Bible. We have Samson, the great mythical hero of the Hebrews. Blessed by God with supernatural strength great enough to constantly whoop Philistines, and even wreck a lion barehanded. But he would be felled by temptation. By love. 

Enter the temptress, Delilah. The Philistine king approaches her and asks her to seduce and find the weakness to Samson’s strength. She gets him to fall in love with him, and then one night, cuts his hair, the unshorn lengths being the secret to his supernatural swoleness. That was it. His enemies were able to pluck out his eyes and ruin his life.

Top tip: Make sure only your certified mythical barber is allowed to touch your locks and give you your shape up. No temptresses plotting your downfall allowed! 

This is just a primer on all that’s out there on the history of magical and powerful goddess like beings who have been put into the role of temptresses. There’s a ton of material, but if you take the time to go through it (including modern works of fiction), you’ll find a ton of similarities, but also some great takes that might show you ways how not to relegate a character like that to simple wish-fulfillment. After all, there are many types of temptation, and many ways to execute it. Just like Frodo and Galadriel. 

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R.R. Virdi is a two-time Dragon Award finalist, Nebula Award finalist, and USA Today Bestselling author. He is the author of the urban fantasy series The Grave Report and The Books of Winter, as well as the epic fantasy novel The First Binding. His love of classic cars drove him to work in the automotive industry for many years before he realized he’d do a better job of maintaining his passion if he stayed away from customers.

He was born and raised in Northern Virginia and is a first generation Indian-American with all the baggage that comes with. He's offended a long list of incalculable ancestors by choosing to drop out of college and not pursue one of three pre-destined careers: a lawyer, doctor, engineer. Instead, he decided to chase his dream of being an author. His family is still coping with this decision a decade later. He expects them to come around in another fifteen to twenty years.