If you look up “pied piper” you will find that it means:
The term comes from the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin; however, in the story the Pied Piper’s promises were not delusive or irresponsible. He did get rid of all the rats. How did the term come to mean what it does today?
I suppose it comes from the enticement of his flute playing. But he is not really enticing the rats or children with his flute playing. It just has magic powers.
It’s just a story. In real life, I think you’d have to be pretty deluded and irresponsible to give your children to a pedophile who claims he can rid your locality of rats by playing a magic flute.
He did not want the children in the story. He wanted gold. He took the children because he was not paid. It was revenge.
They didn’t give the children to him. He lured them with his flute. [Insert ‘flute’ joke.] And he did indeed get rid of the rats. Only the townspeople renegged on their promise to pay him. That’s why he lured the children away.
I think the answer to the OP is that the Piper, or his music, ‘promised’ something attractive to rats and children; so they followed him. The ‘promise’ was not to the townspeople. So a ‘pied piper’ gets people to follow him to their destruction, which I think fits the definition.
Right. It was a joke, y’see…
I’ve always understood the expression to refer to the piper’s powers of leading children (and rats) astray. A pied piper is a person people follow to their doom.
That is my best guess, too. But “entice” does not seem to be the right word for what the flute did to the rats and children. Enticement involves attracting through hope or desire. There is nothing in the story, as far as I am aware, that suggests the flute playing aroused hope or desire. It seemed to just put the rats and children under a spell.
The word I would use for what the Pied Piper did to the rats and children would be “charmed.”
True, but these metaphorical expressions always break down if you demand too much of them. It’s not uncommon to compare false promises and deluded hopes to some sort of magic spell or hypnotism.
link to article.
Ahem.
Based on the nickname of the protaganist, I think it’s reasonable to presume that the musician in this fable was playing a pipe, not a flute.
Anything is possible, but I suspect you are way off in left field with thinking that a piper would play a pipe.
Seriously, that is pretty embarrassing. My defense is that I did not do it first. Oh, wait, I did. I guess I am a pied piper of misnaming musical instruments. Everyone fell for my evil scheme.
Yes, the allusion is to the children following the magical strains of the Pied Piper, enticed by visions of paradise, only to find themselves shut up in a barren mountain. (The implication is that whatever delights the children glimpse as they enter the mountain are all illusory).
It’s also the most memorable element of the story - He stole the children away, by deception. Never mind that this is presented - in context - as terrible retribution - remembered out of context, the Pied Piper is a bad guy who enacts terrible deception.
The tale carries more than one lesson.
To quote Steveland Morris, “When you believe in things you don’t understand, you suffer.”
If you make a bargain in a fairy tale, you’d damn well better keep your side. Other fairy tales carry this same lesson. (The Rainmaker and The Talking Eggs, for example)
When a man tells you he’ll get rid of your rats or your terrorists, but he won’t explain how, don’t agree to anything.
He who calls the tune must pay the piper, and vice versa.
Shoot. Just stay the heck out of fairy tales if you aren’t ready to deal with a lot of weird-ass crap. Same goes for startup companies.