Well, what is a real deus ex machina?
In "Bored of the Rings", Frito and Spam are rescued by Deus Ex Machina Airlines:
Quote: There in the sky they saw a giant eagle, full-feathered and painted shocking pink. On its side were the words DEUS EX MACHINA AIRLINES in metallic gold.
Frito yelped as the great bird swooped low and snatched them both from death with its rubberized talons.
"Name's Gwahno," said the Eagle as they climbed sharply away from the disintegrating land. "Find a seat."
In the underlying "Lord of the Rings", the Eagles were expressly agents of gods... but not themselves gods. Gwaihir was not a god, Manwe was.
In Illiad and Odyssey, gods and goddesses are active participants.
But it is not a theatre play. They do not use
machine to arrive!
In the classical Greek tragedy...
Aeschylus has express intervention of gods in Eumenides. But...
Aeschylus Wrote:(The interior of the sanctuary is disclosed, and exhibits the following group. Apollo appears standing beside Orestes, who is seated on the Omphalos. The Furies are reclined on seats, fast asleep. Hermes in the background.(
Apollo.
In Eumenides, Apollo is present as a speaking character basically from the start. In his own temple. Now, gods are commonly everywhere at all times, but they do not usually make a commitment to be available to confront and converse at all times, even in their temples. Still, Apollo is again not using a
machine to show up in his own temple in Eumenides
.
In Prometheus Bound, Gods are characters from the beginning, so do not need a machine to arrive.
The classic user of real deus ex machina is Euripides. And even then, not all his works that are sometimes said to involve deus ex machina actually do.
Alcestis: Apollo and Death start the story by their conversation - but do not at first address people
. Herakles is NOT at that time a god - unlike Sophocles´ Philoctetes where he IS a god already and a true deus ex machina. Raising Alcestis from dead is merely a miracle, it is performed by a human and thus not a deus ex machina.
Medea: she uses a machine to appear in chariot, but is not herself a goddess. The chariot is given to her by a god - but the god who gave her chariot does not appear in speaking part
.
Hippolytus - this is the second genuine deus ex machina I am listing. Artemis shows up in person, ex machina.
Note that deus ex machina does NOT solve any problems! Artemis does not actually save Hippolytos, who is after all dying for her. She merely declares that she is not allowed to save someone targeted by another goddess (Aphrodite), and promises to get back at Aphrodite in future (THAT she can, but it is no help to Hippolytus or Theseus). All that deus ex machina accomplishes is making Theseus feel bad.
And some other examples from Euripides - he had a reputation for deus ex machina, in lifetime, as mentioned by Aristophanes.
In Aristophanes´ own works, we have Birds. Where gods are expressly present. And Iris expressly arrives ex machina.
Note that the birds´ sentries give advance warning of Iris´ approach. Still, since she arrives by machine, she clearly is deus ex machina. (And solves nothing. The three ambassadors of gods come later and do solve the problem... and they
enter. NOT
ex machina! Because Iris got upbraided and threatened for being deus ex machina, so the gods who enter later got and
heeded the message.)
Where else can deus ex machina be encountered? The 3 tragedians and 1 comedian are the preserved classical Greek drama. There is some later Greek comedy, Roman comedy and tragedy... any gods arriving expressly ex machina? Plautus does have gods onstage (Amphitruo), but do they arrive ex machina?
And how about other cultures? Does Indian theatre include deus ex machina?