Deus ex Machina

降神

Deus ex Machina is Latin for “a god from a machine.” It describes the practice of some Greek playwrights (especially Euripides) to end a drama with a god, lowered to the stage by a mechanical apparatus, who by his judgment and commands resolved the dilemmas of the human characters. The phrase is now used for any forced and improbable device – a telltale birthmark, an un-expected inheritance, the discovery of a lost will or letter – by which a hard-pressed author resolves a plot.

该术语是拉丁文，意为“从机械里出来的天神”。它描述的是一些希腊戏剧作家（尤其是欧里庇得斯）在一出戏的结尾，借用舞台上的机械设施把神降到舞台上，通过他的审判和意旨解决剧中人物两难境地的一种舞台表现手法。这一术语如今被用来指代那些牵强附会和不切实际的表现手段——如一个泄露隐情的胎记、一笔出人意料的遗产、失而复得的遗嘱或密信——束手无策的作者以此完成一个情节。