Cowboy Casanova by Carrie Underwood-yet Another Reincarnation of a Legend Whom We Can't Let Go

Cowboy Casanova by Carrie Underwood became No. 1 hit. Her performance at the 2009 CMA Awards gave us back a hero we never left behind.

After centuries, Casanova remains a legend woven deeply into the fabric of our soul. We learned to love the villain and the lover. He is far from being an accidental character giving us one more plot for one more song and we came to celebrate his belle letters of seduction.

He has been the fascination of every generation since his death in 1798. Numerous novels, movies, plays, television series, songs, musical and operetta carry his name. Today, there is Casanova on Kindle, Casanova on Masterpiece Theatre, Casanova on DVD and Audio CD, Casanova on Video on Demand and MP3 Download, and on it goes.

Casanova was more than his myth, more than his feminine conquests. He was an accomplished diplomat and politician, the author of many books dealing with as different subjects as poetry and theology. And yet he is even today, as he was throughout the history, most known for his notorious memoirs of seduction.

Dressed in Cowboy or James Bond suit, or "the Sexiest Man Alive" outfit, Casanova has made his way into the today evening news, along with the stock exchange reports, the Israeli Palestinian conflict, Afghanistan, the war with Iraq, and the latest in medical research. He has grossed millions in the movie theatres proving that he can entertain us no matter what our gender is.

We loved Daphnis, Tristan, Pygmalion, and Orpheus longer, since the ancient times, and yet, it is Casanova (no matter what his latest incarnation) who has captivated our consciousness on the largest scale. Though we still love our larger-than-life lovers, we have forgotten their sacrifices. We no longer know that they dared to love to death, we no longer care that they followed their true loves into the underworld.

And yet, we never forgot who Casanova was. He is still in our consciousness. We have outlawed him out of our workplace, but we are incapable of outlawing him out of our hearts.

And we, Eves and daughters of Eves, we like being Dulcineas in the "yin-and-yang" tales. The poetry these tales come with is irresistible to our feminine sensibilities. So is our newly-acquired power to laugh our Casanova off, if we so choose. Secured by our own financial and emotional independence, we want to make him in our image. "I'll be his Pygmalion, and he'll be my Galatea" swinging joyously in our Athena's heads.

The theme of a seducer is legendary, and it is as old as the civilization itself. It found its expression in every art form and in every epoch; from painting to sculpture, and to written word; from mythological times to nowadays.

However, this for-centuries-long male claim on seduction rights no longer exists. Not since a woman took on the same role. Casanova, that is. Even though she came late to the seduction scene, she occupies the same bewilderment in our consciousness; and in our art as well. Still more in our literature, movies and music.

In Carrie Underwood's performance, Cowboy Casanova met his match. For a moment, she made us all believe in our own gift of seduction.

That seduction is a vocation can certainly be said for Casanova and different cultures and epochs have accepted it. As ours has. And our centuries-long attraction to Casanova, whom we both admire and detest, also suggests that we have learned to live in harmony with our own contradictions of the power of seduction.