Theatrical Devices
Mechane
The mechane (literally, ‘machine’) was a crane used in tragedy and
comedy in the fifth century for hoisting characters in the air, most often
to represent flight. Euripides used the mechane to provide
an aerial means of escape for Medea from Corinth, after she murdered her
children. The Latin term deus ex machina (‘god from the machine’)
is sometimes used for this device, because it was used to introduce gods
from the air, although probably not before the fourth century BC.1
Note:
1. Gods who intervene in fifth century tragedies probably appeared through
a trap-door on the roof of the skene to address mortals from a higher
level.
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