User blog comment:StagedDom19/Missing the Main Problem/@comment-2256917-20120710223215/@comment-2256917-20120712180600

Well, I didn't know you wanted proof first, rather than assume familiarity with the expression in a friendly spirit. A theos ek mekhanes literally refers to the "machine" on an Attic Greek stage that would suspend the actor who played a god, such as Hermes at the end of Aritophanes' Clouds'. It came to refer to, even for some of these Greeks themselves, any occasion in a work of poetic art when a god swept in basically to save the day, such as Athena preventing outright civil war in Ithaca at the end of the Odyssey. The plain implication is that in circumstances which are too overwhelming for human contrivance, the only one powerful enough to overcome them is a god. It is an easy extension to then use the phrase to refer to any super-powerful solution that is either incredible in natural terms (the original, axe-grinding ending to The Abyss), or just plain comes out of nowhere in the story (like grandpa the vampire killer at the end of 'Lost Boys"). Generally, if there's no necessity or probability to the solution. That's what I meant by deus ex.