The Latin word ‘vindex’ literally translates to ‘champion’. Synonyms for vindex also include claimant, solver and vindicate. In ‘The Deus Ex Machina in Euripides’ the term vindex is used as follows: ‘Horace clearly states that when the situation needs a ‘vindex’ a god may be brought in’. If we try to imagine a word that may be substituted for vindex, ‘intervention’ comes to mind, especially as divine intervention and the deus ex machina is also spoken about. When we combine this idea with the definition of vindicate, which can be to justify, a situation where problems are fathomed and solved be intervention is created. Thus, I derive that a problematic situation would require a ‘vindex’, the ‘vindex’ being a theatrical device in the form of a solution that seems to imply an intervention, potentially divine, especially when paired with the deus ex machine. It is most likely that this ‘vindex’ as a person, taking the form of a ‘champion’ who reverts normality to the play.

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