deus ex machina \DAY-us-eks-MAH-kuh-nuh; -nah; -MAK-uh-nuh\,
noun:
1. In ancient Greek and Roman drama, a god introduced by means of a crane to
unravel and resolve the plot.
2. Any active agent who appears unexpectedly to solve an apparently insoluble
difficulty.
In times of affluence and peace, with technology that always seems to arrive
like a deus ex machina to solve any problem, it becomes easy to believe
that life is perfectible.
--Stephanie Gutmann, The Kinder, Gentler Military: Can America's Gender-Neutral
Fighting Force Still Win Wars?
But we also need the possibility of cataclysm, so that, when situations seem
hopeless, and beyond the power of any natural force to amend, we may still anticipate
salvation from a messiah, a conquering hero, a deus ex machina, or some
other agent with power to fracture the unsupportable and institute the unobtainable.
--Stephen Jay Gould, Questioning the Millennium: A Rationalist's Guide to
a Precisely Arbitrary Countdown
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Deus ex machina is New Latin for "god from the machine"; it is a translation of the Greek theos ek mekhanes.
This term stems from the ancient theatrical practice of introducing a god suspended from a crane toward the end of a play to unravel the plot and decide the final outcome. Euripedes (c.484-406 BC) was one playwright who made frequent use of the device. "Deus ex machina" has also long been applied to unexpected saviors or to improbable events that bring order out of chaos.