ABSTRACT
As a method, black magic at rst presupposes a high degree of treachery or, in general, evil intent. In Euripides’ Ion, for instance, Creusa in collusion with her old servant (the pedagogue) selects the form of ‘deceit’ to be used; and he o ers her the following advice: ‘For this reason, perform a womanly act, and either by the sword or by deceit or with poison kill your husband and his child, before you receive death from their hand’ (843-6). What the heroine e ectively attempts to achieve is somehow to ‘exorcize’ death. And in order to fool death, one has but to use mêtis, that is practical ‘cunning’. e characters’ ‘cunning’ becomes the central theme of the action, both in the cinema and chie y in those dramatic art forms which represent romantic periods or simply romantic dispositions. e trick usually involves a speci c practice of ‘magic’, namely the technique of substitution.
