Talk:Ex Deus Machina
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the title is "Ex Deus Machina," not "Deus Ex Machina," so that one note isn't correct. Changed.
In the notes it says:
- The episode's title appears to be similar to the term "Deus Ex Machina," which literally translates to "God from the Machine." The title, therefore, is a play on words, since Ba'al is an ex-deus (an ex-god). Although, since the phrase is latin in origin, this changed order does not affect its meaning.
But this isn't strictly correct. Even in inflectional languages, such as Latin, word order is rather rigid in certain cases, such as in use of prepositions. Here, "ex" is a preposition, and it goes with "machina" (ablative form of machina); normally, prepositions come right before the word it goes with (hence preposition). It's very unusual to have another word interposed in-between (and since "deus" is nominative, it can't go with a preposition)—yes, it's a "clever" pun (where "clever" should be taken in the worst way possible), but as far as latin part of it goes, it's just bad grammar (I wouldn't say that we never see something like that in well-known Latin works, but a student in Latin composition should never write such a phrase).
both are correct latin: it's called a hyperbaton, and the deus ex machina is an event (apart from the theatre crane, machine, bringing the god on the stage at the turning point of the story) - a surprising twist.--FlammingoHey 10:15, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
