Latin for “a god from a machine.” It designates 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. (Abrams & Harpham, 2012, p. 85) [More generally] deus ex machina denotes any external aid or solution to a problem that arrives without preparation to make things easier for the protagonist. (Lavandier, 2005) [The phrase is often used pejoratively for a] forced and improbable device—a telltale birthmark, an unexpected inheritance, the discovery of a lost will or letter—by which a hard-pressed author resolves a plot, (Abrams & Harpham, 2012, p. 85) and which has not been convincingly prepared for in the preceding action. (Baldick, 2001, p. 63) By extension, any easy solution. (Lavandier, 2005) Also see diabolus ex machina