Sunday 18 May 2014

Stage Machinery

Deus ex machina - Wikipedia

μηχανή ή αιώρημα [mechané and aiorema] or Deus ex machina
A kind of crane that presented gods hovering above the stage.

Latin for God from a machine, a translation of the Greek Θεὸς ἀπὸ μηχανῆς, Theos apo mēchanēs . An expression borrowed from the ancient classical theatre. The intervention of a divinity who solves abruptly a tragic difficulty, and quickly bring about its resolution. The god was brought on by the use stage machinery, hence the name. Examples of the use of this device are the appearance of Heracles in the Philoctetes and of Athena in the Iphigenia in Taurica.


Other well-known scenes where a Deus Ex Machina is employed:

Final scene of Aeschylus' Oresteia part III - Eumenides [The Furies] where the Goddess Athena enters from above.

In the Aeschylus' Suppliants where Aphrodite appears in Deus ex Machina fashion and absolves them of the murders.

In Euripides' Medea a chariot [on a crane] is sent by the Sun-God Helios to rescue Medea and take her off to safety in Athens.

Deus ex machina - The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

See also



Periaktos - Wikipedia
periaktoi, two wooden revolving prisms installed on either side of the stage, which were used for displaying and rapidly changing scenery

Ekkuklema [εκκύκλημα]

A platform on rollers [possibly invented by Aeschylus] primarily used for the display of still corpses as a tableau rather like a sculpture, used during tragedies to show murders or killings which had taken place off-stage, and rolled out of and back in again into the skene building.

Joel D. Eis (2014). The Function of the Ekkyklema in Greek Theatre: The Sculptural Display of Murdered Victims and the Success of Greek Tragedy for the State. Edwin Mellen Press. ISBN 978-0-7734-3527-8.

Tiziano Mariani (April 2015) Doctoral Thesis
Università degli Studi di Parma. Dipartimento di Antichistica, Lingue, Educazione e Filosofia
Macchine teatrali e funzionalità drammaturgica nella tragedia classica greca
[Theatre machinery and dramaturgic functionality in classical Greek tragedy]
https://hdl.handle.net/1889/2839
          Abstract

Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines  Daremberg, Charles Victor - Internet Archive
EKKYKLÉMA

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) Exostra

Exostra - HellenicaWorld       (Balcony?)

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Eccyclema". Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/art/eccyclema.

Eccyclema - Greek theatre - Britannica

Ekkyklema und Mechané in der Inszenierung des griechischen Dramas
Hans-Joachim Newiger
https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/wja/article/view/27038/20732

References

The context of ancient drama pp 393-402: Csapo, Eric - Internet Archive
Appendix A: Pollux Onomasticon 4.99-154 [Book 4 Sections 99-154] 

Onomasticon: Pollux, Julius, of Naucratis - Internet Archive Pollux IV 128-31

Pollucis Onomasticon: e codicibus ab ipso collatis denuo edidit et adnotavit Ericus Bethe: Pollux, Julius, of Naucratis - Internet Archive  Pollux IV 128-31

The Attic Theatre Chapter IV The Scenery: A.E Haigh - Internet Archive

Dionysos, étude sur l'organisation matérielle du théâtre athénien by Octave Navarre - Internet Archive
CHAPITRE IX LES MACHINES pp 127-139

Stage Devices in Aristophanes by Janet Elizabeth Vincent

Clifford Ashby (1999). Classical Greek Theatre: New Views of an Old Subject. University of Iowa Press. pp. 81–. ISBN 978-1-58729-463-1.

Mechane - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Greek - Roman Theatre Glossary (Ancient Theatre Archive Project)

deus.ex.mechane.jpg (1008×630) Ancient Theatre Archive

Greek History - FOBISIA DRAMA 

Actors on High: The Skene Roof, the Crane, and the Gods in Attic Drama
Donald J. Mastronarde
Classical Antiquity
Vol. 9, No. 2 (Oct., 1990), pp. 247-294
Published by: University of California Press
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25010931
http://escholarship.org/uc/item/61w4628m

David Wiles (1999). Tragedy in Athens: Performance Space and Theatrical Meaning. Chapter 8: The Vertical Axis: Cambridge University Press. pp. 175–. ISBN 978-0-521-66615-2.

Marco Ceccarelli (2004). International Symposium on History of Machines and Mechanisms. Springer. pp. 87–. ISBN 978-1-4020-2203-6.

The technology of the ancient Greek theatre
http://kotsanas.com/gb/cat.php?category=9


Argyris S. Papadogiannis, Marilena C. Tsakoumaki and Thomas G. Chondros
J. Mech. Des. 132(1), 011001 (Dec 09, 2009) (9 pages) doi:10.1115/1.4000530


Didaskalia - The Journal for Ancient PerformanceGraham Ley (2006). A Short Introduction to the Ancient Greek Theater: Revised Edition. University of Chicago Press.. ISBN 978-0-226-47761-9.

Martin Revermann (8 August 2019). A Cultural History of Theatre in Antiquity. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-350-13530-7.
Chapter 9: Technologies of Performance: Machines, Props, Dramaturgy pp. 163-82
Peter von Möllendorff (translated from German by Martin Revermann)
Technologies of performance. Machines, props, dramaturgy - CORE

Actors on High: The Skene Roof, the Crane, and the Gods in Attic Drama
Donald J. Mastronarde
Classical Antiquity
Vol. 9, No. 2 (Oct., 1990), pp. 247-294
Published by: University of California Press
Article Stable URL:http://www.jstor.org/stable/25010931

Joel Eis (2014). The Function of the Ekkyklema in Greek Theatre: The Sculptural Display of Murdered Victims and the Success of Greek Tragedy for the State. Edwin Mellen Press. ISBN 978-0-7734-3527-8.


ekkylema.jpg (1008×630) Ancient Theatre Archive

A NEW THEORY OF THE EKKYKLEMA; AND (II.) TWO SHORT NOTES
CHARLES EXON
Hermathena
Vol. 11, No. 26 (1900), pp. 132-145 (14 pages)
Published by: Trinity College Dublin
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23036703

Anthropomorphism, Theatre, Epiphany: From Herodotus to Hellenistic Historians https://bit.ly/2PoXWlc

RK Piettre - Archiv für Religionsgeschichte, 2018 - halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr

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