Friday, June 5, 2009

Who is your favorite Greek Tragedian? Or the Saga of the Duex ex Machina



Vedic lore has less heroes than herioc Godesses. It does not have logical situations where rational negotiations have given resolution. And this is not just written dramatics, as in Greece, but in almost every challenge that faced human existence.



The divine drama that almost always gets played out is:



Act 1: Trouble brews when powerful entities gain blessings and start their reign of terror on earth.



Act 2: The reign of terror takes the pain to the extreme and the troubles of earthly life become quite unbearable. When humanity is unable to resolve the situation, they begin praying for divine intervention, which acts in a sure shot way. An incarnation which brings about a long term solution to the miseries of the populace



Act 3: The battle for earth begins between the forces of good and evil. The forces of good more often than not lead by a female incarnation of the divine, which prevails, establishing peace, justice and happiness for generations to come.



This three act play of the divine always depends, and is orchestrated by the Goddess divine, the duex de machina.



While the Greek-Romantics rejected the use of divine intervention as a plot device in their story telling, it was very much a fact of life. The Greek tragedian Euripidis was criticized for overuse of duex ex machina for giving resulutions to the story and so was the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. But real battles for the earth were always resolved by none other than this phenomenon.



Euripidis, you just became my favorite Greek tragedian*.



* as if I know many others....