ound of the orchestra becameintricately decorated. The columns present throughout Hellenistic Theaters were doneaway with and replaced by a plain stage area. Most prominent, however, were the changesto the orchestra. The skene was moved forward, thus cutting into the circular orchestraand, for the first time in any theater created a semi-circular orchestra (Nicoll 20). Thesetheaters also allowed for machines which were used to accomplish some of the specialeffects. It wasnt until the two-story skene was created that many of these machines couldbe successfully hidden from the audience. A few machines in particular were mostimpressive. One of these impressive machines was the mechane, invented around 430 B.C.The mechane was attached to the top of the skene toward the left side of the stage. Itconsisted of a hook and pulley used to float actors through the air. It was most commonlyused to fly the actors portraying gods. The Clouds by Aristophanes was one of the firstplays to have employed the mechane. As the mechane became more widely used byAeschylus and Euripides, the Latin phrase dues ex machina arose. The phrase originallyreferred to the flying of the divinity but later came to signify a dramatic device introducedfor the purpose of bringing a problem or an action to a swift, and often to anunsatisfactorily artificial, conclusion, (Nicoll 22). Playwrights began to rely on this deviceas an easy way to conclude a performance when they simply could not think of anythingelse. Another significant machine was the eccyclema (often spelled ekkuklema). The namewas derived from the Latin word ekkuklein meaning, to roll out, (Nicoll 21) becausethe eccyclema was simply a platform rolled out of the skene. Its purpose was to reveal theaftermath of something that supposedly took place off stage. Usually that somethingwould be dead bodies (Harwood 48). Since murders would very rarely take place onstage, the eccyclema became a frequently employed machin...
