Mechane
A mêchanê (μηχανῆ) was a crane used in ancient Greek and Roman theatre and was probably in wide use since the fourth century BC. Made of wooden beams and pulley systems, the device was used to lift an actor into the air, usually representing flight. This stage machine was particularly used to bring gods onto the stage from above[1], hence the Latin term deus ex machina ("god from the machine").[2] Euripides' use of the mêchanê in Medea (431 BC) is an early and notable use of the machine for a non-divine character, providing a means of escape for Medea from Corinth after she murders her children. The mêchanê was also often used by Aeschylus.
In Christian liturgy the mêchanê has also been identified with the cross. Ignatius calls the cross the "theatre machine" of Jesus Christ.[3]
Stage machines were also used in ancient Rome, e.g. during the sometimes highly dramatic performances at funerals. For Julius Caesar's funeral service Appian reports a mêchanê that was used to present a blood-stained wax effigy of the deceased dictator to the funeral crowd. The mêchanê was used to turn the body in all directions.[4] Geoffrey Sumi proposed that the use of the mêchanê "hinted at Caesar's divinity".[5] This is highly unlikely because Appian doesn't describe the mêchanê as a genuine deus-ex-machina device. Furthermore Caesar's apotheosis wasn't legally conducted until 42 BC, and Caesar had only been worshipped inofficially as divus during his lifetime. First and foremost Marcus Antonius attempted to arouse the masses as a means to strengthen Caesar's esteem as well as his own political power.[6]
References
- ↑ Plato, Crat. 425d; Clit. 407a
- ↑ The mêchanê as a means for introducing a deus ex machina onto the stage was probably not in widespread use before the 4th century BC: "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." (Roger Dunkle, Introduction to Greek Tragedy)
- ↑ Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Ephesians IX 1: ἀναφερόμενοι εἰς τὰ ὕψη διὰ τῆς μηχανῆς Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ὅς ἐστιν σταυρός.
- ↑ Appian, Civil Wars 2.147: τὸ μὲν γὰρ σῶμα, ὡς ὕπτιον ἐπὶ λέχους, οὐχ ἑωρᾶτο. τὸ δὲ ἀνδρείκελον ἐκ μηχανῆς ἐπεστρέφετο πάντῃ. Appian's mêchanê probably described the device that Suetonius rendered as the tropaeum, which was covered by Caesar's blood-stained robe and to which possibly also the effigy (simulacrum) was affixed. (Divus Iulius 84; here tropaeum has been erroneously translated as "pillar".)
- ↑ Geoffrey S. Sumi, Ceremony and Power. Performing Politics in Rome between Republic and Empire, Ann Arbor 2005, pp. 107–109, chapter: "Caesar ex machina", ISBN 978-0-472-11517-4
- ↑ The fact that Caesar's resurrectio as god happened later during the funeral as he was cremated, and that it spawned the early Caesarian cult by the Pseudo-Marius, can't explain Antonius' intentions for using a mêchanê during the funeral, since the cremation occured after the fact.