Expert: Maria - 7/24/2008

Question
This phrase came to me via dictionary.com, word of the day recently. I was wondering what the translations for "ghost in the machine" and "healer of machines" would look like. Would you translate for me?
Thanks

Answer
Hello,

The Latin  expression “Deus ex machina”, which is the translation of Ancient Greek “Theos apo mechanes”, means correctly "the god out of a machine"/” the god from a device”, i.e. a god (not a “ghost” or a “ healer”) who suddenly appeared out of a machine,i.e. a kind of crane.

In  ancient Greek tragedy in fact often at some point a god appeared  to resolve unsolvable situation in an unexpected way.

This god [obviously an actor who played a god, almost always Zeus himself] was introduced on the stage, near the end of the drama, by letting him descend from sky, in the reality obviously  using a machine.

Hence the locution “Deus ex machina” (Theòs apò mechanès ) to mean an unexpected, sudden  solution of a complicated matter, when an apparently insoluble crisis was solved by the intervention of a god, often brought on stage by an elaborate piece of equipment.

Today this expression is still used to mean a person/object/plot device that appears suddenly and unexpectedly to provide a solution to an apparently insoluble difficulty.

Hope all is clear enough.

Best regards,
Maria
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DEUS (Greek, 'Theos')= the god
EX (Greek, 'apo')= out of/ from
MACHINA (Greek, 'mechanes')= machine/ device