§ 7 The Mechane and Theologeion
Another appliance of even greater importance than the ekkyklema, and one very frequently employed upon the Greek stage, was the ‘mechane’ or Machine.637 It consisted of a sort of crane with a pulley attached, by which weights could be raised or lowered. It was placed in the left or western corner of the stage, at the very top of the back-scene. It was used when the characters of a play had to appear or disappear in a supernatural manner. By its means a god or hero could be lowered from heaven down to earth, or raised up from earth to heaven, or exhibited motionless in mid-air. Sometimes the god was represented as sitting in a chariot, or on a winged steed; but in most cases he was simply suspended from the rope by means of a hook and bands fastened round his body. The strength of the mechane must have been considerable, since it was powerful enough to support two or three people at the same time. As to the way in which it was worked, and the manner in which the actors were made to disappear from view at the top of the stage, there is no information. Unfortunately the construction of the upper part of the stage-buildings is a subject about which we are entirely ignorant. It is useless therefore to hazard conjectures concerning the exact nature of the arrangements adopted. The grammarians also speak of two other contrivances, the Crane and the Fig-branch, as used for moving people through the air. But whether they were really distinct from the mechane is far from certain. The Fig-branch is said to have been designed specially for comedy. It appears, however, from the description to have been much the same as the mechane, and was probably only a comic name for it.638 The Crane is described as an instrument for conveying the bodies of dead heroes up into the sky. Possibly the Crane also was merely another name for the mechane; or it may have been a separate contrivance, placed at the other end of the back-scene, and used exclusively for the removal of dead bodies. In any case it cannot have differed very much from the mechane in structure.639 There are one or two passages in the ancient writers where the mechane is described as a ‘kind of ekkyklema’, and persons are said to have been rolled out by means of it.640 It is uncertain in these cases whether the grammarians are confusing the two machines; or whether they are thinking of the theologeion, which, as we shall see later on, may have been worked by mechanism similar to that of the ekkyklema.
Examples of the use of the mechane are fairly common both in the extant dramas and in the records of the grammarians. At the same time there is often a doubt, when a personage makes his appearance on high, whether he was exhibited by means of this device or in some other way. For the present, therefore, we will confine ourselves to those cases where the person is described as moving through the air, and where it seems clear that, if any machinery was employed, it must have been the mechane. The earliest instance is probably that in the Prometheus. Oceanus descends on a ‘winged quadruped’, converses some time with Prometheus, and then rides away again, saying as he goes that his steed yearns to ‘skim with its wings the smooth paths of air’. We are told also that in the Psychostasia, the lost play of Aeschylus, the body of Memnon was carried by Dawn into the sky.641 Both these instances have been doubted, but merely on general grounds, and without adequate reason. But there are two other supposed examples in Aeschylus which are far more open to question. There is the scene in the Eumenides where Athene arrives from Troas, and where it is thought that she descends from the sky. The language, however, in which she describes her journey is ambiguous and full of difficulty. In three successive lines she appears to say that she has walked, flown, and driven in a chariot.642 It would be unsafe in a case like this to draw any inference as to the exact manner in which she made her entrance on to the stage. There is also the scene in the Prometheus where the Oceanides enter in a ‘winged car’, halt in front of Prometheus for about a hundred and fifty lines, and then, at his bidding, dismount from their ‘swift-rushing seat’ and descend into the orchestra.643 Here, too, the mechane has been suggested. But it is scarcely credible that a whole tragic chorus should have been suspended in front of Prometheus during the delivery of a hundred and fifty lines. Even if the machinery had been strong enough to support twelve or fifteen choristers, the spectacle would have been ludicrous.644 It is much better to suppose that the car was rolled in along the stage, its previous flight being left to the imagination of the spectators. After the time of Aeschylus there are many instances of the use of the mechane. Euripides often employs it to wind up his plays. At the end of the Andromache Thetis comes into view ‘voyaging through the bright air’. At the end of the Electra the Dioscuri arrive by a ‘path impossible to mortals’, and depart later on ‘through the regions of the sky’. Medea’s appearance with her children in the aerial car may be safely regarded as a further example, though there is no mention in this case of any ascent or descent.645 The device is also introduced in other parts of a play. In the Hercules Furens Iris and Lyssa come down from heaven in a chariot; then Iris re-ascends, while Lyssa goes on into the palace. In the Bellerophon the hero rode up to heaven on the winged steed Pegasus; and in the Andromeda Perseus flew down through the air to the foot of the cliff where the heroine was chained.646 The mechane is also parodied in many places by Aristophanes. In the Clouds, Socrates is seen hanging in a basket in mid-air, and studying astronomy. Iris, in the Birds, comes floating down from the sky in such an irregular and eccentric fashion that Peisthetaerus has the greatest difficulty in bringing her to a standstill. In a fragment of the Daedalus the actor who is going to ascend entreats the man in charge of the machinery to give him warning, before he begins to haul up the rope, by exclaiming ‘hail, light of the sun’. The ascent of Trygaeus upon a beetle in the Peace was intended as a parody upon the Bellerophon of Euripides. The speech of Trygaeus, in the course of his aerial journey, consists of a ludicrous mixture of phrases from the Bellerophon, shouts to the beetle to keep his head straight, and terrified appeals to the stage-manager to look after the security of the pulley.647
In addition to the mechane there was also another appliance in use upon the Greek stage for the purpose of exhibiting gods in a supernatural manner. It was called the theologeion, and represented the gods as stationary in heaven, and not as moving through the air. It consisted, apparently, of a narrow platform in the upper part of the back-scene.648 Probably it was similar in construction to the ekkyklema, and was usually invisible, but was pushed forward through an opening at the back when required. It has been suggested that the theologeion was in reality nothing more than the palace roof. But this theory is hardly a plausible one. When the gods were to be exhibited in celestial splendour in the sky, it would have been undignified and incongruous to place them on the roof of a human habitation. Also the position of the theologeion is expressly described as being high up above the stage.649 As regards its usage, the only recorded instance is that in the Psychostasia of Aeschylus. Zeus was there represented as sitting in heaven, holding scales in his hands, in which were placed the destinies of Achilles and Memnon respectively. On each side of him stood Thetis and Dawn, supplicating for the lives of their sons. The scene was in imitation of that in the Iliad, where Zeus weighs the fates of Achilles and Hector.650 It is probable that the theologeion was also used in the Peace, in the scene where Trygaeus ascends to heaven, and converses with Hermes in front of the palace of Zeus.651
The relationship between the theologeion and the mechane has been much discussed during the last few years, and various theories have been brought forward on the subject. Some of the critics think the mechane was the older and more primitive device, and that the theologeion was invented towards the end of the fifth century, to serve as a substitute, and avoid the awkwardness of the previous arrangement.652 Others take exactly the opposite view, and regard the theologeion as the simple contrivance of the early drama, and the mechane as a later and more picturesque piece of machinery.653 Neither of these views can be maintained except by a somewhat arbitrary treatment of the evidence. We have clear testimony as to the existence both of the mechane and of the theologeion in the time of Aeschylus; and it seems uncritical to reject this testimony in the one case, and accept it in the other. As regards the question of priority, it is impossible to come to any decision, owing to the paucity of the early dramas which have been preserved. But there is one point which deserves consideration. We have seen that there are several cases at the close of a play in which the mechane was unquestionably used to introduce the god who solved the difficulties of the plot. The god’s arrival is described in language which leaves no doubt upon the subject. But there are many other cases in which he appears for a similar purpose, and in which he is simply described as standing in some elevated position, and nothing is said about any flight through the air.654 There are also several plays at the end of which the god appears abruptly, without any notice as to his standing-place, or the manner in which he arrived; but in which it is evident, from the analogy of the other dramas, that he appeared above the heads of the ordinary actors.655 In both these latter classes of play there is some uncertainty as to the nature of the machinery employed. The question may be raised whether, when there is no mention of any movement through the air, the god was introduced by the mechane or by the theologeion. Was he floated down from the sky, or pushed out through the back-scene? Some scholars maintain that the theologeion was the device used in these particular cases; and the supposition is no doubt possible. But, on the other hand, the fact that there is no allusion to the mechane in the course of the dialogue proves nothing as to its presence or its absence. There are many places in which, though the ekkyklema was obviously employed, the text contains no reference to it. Also it is clear that from the beginning of the fourth century the mechane became the regular contrivance for introducing gods at the close of a drama. Plato remarks that the tragedians, when in a difficulty, ‘have recourse to the mechane, and suspend their gods in mid-air.’ Antiphanes, the comic poet, ridicules the practice of hanging out the mechane at the end of a tragedy. Aristotle speaks of the mechane as the invariable device on such occasions. The phrase ‘deus ex machina’ appears already in the fourth century as a proverbial expression for an unexpected benefactor.656 It seems more probable, therefore, that the mechane was regularly used, even in the fifth century, for the same purpose. We have several cases in which it must have been so employed, and none in which it is necessary to introduce the theologeion. The only known example of the use of the theologeion is that in the Psychostasia. Any further cases in which its presence is assumed must be purely conjectural.
Before leaving this subject a few remarks may be made on the general question of the appearances of the gods in tragedy. In the early drama the gods often played an important part in the action of the piece. They came down to earth and mixed with mankind after the old Homeric fashion. Their arrivals and departures might be conducted in a supernatural manner, but when they were once on the stage they moved about like ordinary human beings. Such is still the case in plays like the Eumenides of Aeschylus. But later on, as the tone of the drama became more entirely human, the gods began to be excluded more and more from any real share in the plot. Their occasional presence at the scene of action was managed with more dignity and splendour. It is rare to find them appearing side by side with human beings, as Athene apparently does in the Rhesus and in the opening scene of the Ajax.657 The Bacchae is an exceptional case, since Dionysus is there disguised as a young man. But usually, in the later drama, the intervention of the gods was restricted to the beginning and the end of the play, when they came forward to speak the prologue and the epilogue. In such cases they no longer join with mortal men in the free and easy intercourse of the Homeric period. Their movements are more dignified and celestial. It is true that in the prologues, when they are alone, and no human beings have yet intruded on the stage, they make their entrance on foot, and walk the earth like ordinary men.658 But at the end of the play, when the stage is occupied by mortals, they disdain to tread the same ground with them, and are exhibited in the sky by means of the mechane. Even in the prologues it appears that the same practice was introduced in the course of the fourth century, and that henceforth all apparitions of the gods, both at the beginning and the end of a play, were made equally supernatural.659 This formal introduction of deities at the beginning and the close, which was now practically the sole survivor of the old divine participation in the drama, is the subject of a well-known criticism by Aristotle. He allows that it is perfectly legitimate, when the gods are carefully excluded from the action, and are brought in merely to give information about the past, or to predict the future. But he strongly censures the later practice of employing them at the end of a tragedy to solve the difficulties of the plot. He says that in a well-constructed play the conclusions should be the natural result of the preceding incidents, and there should be no need of any supernatural agency.660 Euripides has generally been regarded as the chief offender against his rule, and as the author of the custom which he condemns. But it will be found, on examining his plays, that there are very few of them in which the god is really used as a last resort. There are only two instances in which he can be said to solve the problems of the situation. In the other cases he is introduced, not so much to set matters right, as to inform the characters of the destiny which awaits them. His function is confined to announcing the future course of events.661 These, therefore, are what Aristotle would call permissible uses of the ‘deus ex machina’.