Dic: 데우스 엑스 마키나(deus ex machina)

자료 1: 다음(브리태니커)

데우스 엑스 마키나 [deus ex machina] ('기계장치로 온 신'이라는 뜻의 라틴어)

고대 그리스와 로마 연극에서 줄거리를 풀어나가고 해결하기 위해 신이 때맞춰 나타나는 것.
신이 기중기(그리스어로 '메카네')를 이용하여 하늘에서 나타났기 때문에 이 연극 장치를 '데우스 엑스 마키나'라고 부르게 되었다. 고대 이래로 예기치 않게 나타난 구조자나 혼란, 혹은 질서를 가져오는 뜻밖의 사건(예를 들면 미국 서부영화에서 결정적 순간에 기병대가 나타나 비극을 막는 것 따위)을 일컬을 때도 이 용어가 사용되어왔다. 이 연극장치는 BC 4세기부터 사용되었다. 소포클레스의 〈필록테테스 Philoctetes〉 연극에서도 여러 번 신이 등장하여 위기를 해결한다.

자료 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina

A deus ex machina (pronounced /ˈdeɪ.əs ɛks ˈmɑːkiːnə/ or /ˈdiː.əs ɛks ˈmækɨnə/,^[1] DAY-əs eks MAH-kee-nə) (Latin for "god out of the machine"; plural: dei ex machina) is a plot device whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new character, ability, or object.

Linguistic considerations

The Latin phrase "deus ex machina" comes to English usage from Horace's Ars Poetica, where he instructs poets that they must never resort to a god from the machine to solve their plots. He refers to the conventions of Greek tragedy, where a crane (mekhane) was used to lower actors playing gods onto the stage. The machine referred to in the phrase could be either the crane employed in the task, a calque from the Greek "god from the machine" ("ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεός," apò mēkhanḗs theós), or the riser that brought a god up from a trap door. Although this phrase is somewhat diluted in transliteration as earlier in history, the phrase "god from the machine" implies the old use of mechanical manipulation, i.e. to be made with one's hands. So if there were a more generally accurate way of translating deus ex machina into English, it would be "god from our hands" or "god that we make", implying that the device of said god is entirely artificial or conceived by man.

Ancient uses

The Greek tragedian Euripides is often criticized for his frequent use of the "deus ex machina". More than half of Euripides's extant tragedies employ a "deus ex machina" in their resolution and some critics go so far as to claim that Euripides invented the "deus ex machina", although Aeschylus employed a similar device in his 'Eumenides'.[2] For example, in Euripides' play "Alcestis", the eponymous heroine agrees to give up her own life in order to spare the life of her husband, Admetus. At the end Heracles shows up and seizes Alcestis from Death, restoring her to life and to Admetus. A more frequently cited example is Euripides' "Medea" in which the "deus ex machina" is used to convey Medea, who has just committed murder and infanticide, away from her husband Jason to the safety and civilization of Athens. In Aristophanes' play "Thesmophoriazusae" the playwright parodies Euripides' frequent use of the crane by making Euripides himself a character in the play and bringing him on stage by way of the "mekhane".

Aristotle criticized the device in his "Poetics", where he argued that the resolution of a plot must arise internally, following from previous action of the play:[3]

In the characters too, exactly as in the structure of the incidents, [the poet] ought always to seek what is either necessary or probable, so that it is either necessary or probable that a person of such-and-such a sort say or do things of the same sort, and it is either necessary or probable that this [incident] happen after that one.

It is obvious that the solutions of plots too should come about as a result of the plot itself, and not from a contrivance, as in the "Medea" and in the passage about sailing home in the "Iliad". A contrivance must be used for matters outside the drama—either previous events which are beyond human knowledge, or later ones that need to be foretold or announced. For we grant that the gods can see everything. There should be nothing improbable in the incidents; otherwise, it should be outside the tragedy, e.g. that in Sophocles' "Oedipus".

—Aristotle, Poetics (1454a33-1454b9)

Aristotle praised Euripides, however, for generally ending his plays with bad fortune, which he viewed as correct in tragedy, and somewhat excused the intervention of a deity by suggesting that "astonishment" should be sought in tragic drama:[4]

Irrationalities should be referred to what people say: that is one solution, and also sometimes that it is not irrational, since it is probable that improbable things will happen.

Medieval uses (...)