Concept
Magi
Overview
Magi (plur), or magus (sing), is the term for priests in Zoroastrianism and earlier Iranian religions. The earliest known use of the word magi is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius the Great, known as the Behistun Inscription. Old Persian texts refer to a magus as a Zurvanic, and presumably Zoroastrian, priest.
Pervasive throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and West Asia until late antiquity and beyond, mágos (μάγος) was influenced by (and eventually displaced) Greek goēs (γόης), the older word for a practitioner of magic, with a meaning expanded to include astronomy, astrology, alchemy, and other forms of esoteric knowledge. This association was in turn the product of the Hellenistic fascination for Pseudo-Zoroaster, who was perceived by the Greeks to be the Chaldean founder of the Magi and inventor of both astrology and magic, a meaning that still survives in the modern-day words "magic" and "magician".
In the Gospel of Matthew, "μάγοι" (magoi) from the east pay homage to the Christ Child, and the transliterated plural "magi" entered English from Latin in this context around 1200 AD (this particular use is also commonly rendered in English as "kings" and more often in recent times as "wise men"). The singular "magus" appears considerably later, when it was borrowed from Old French in the late 14th century with the meaning magician.
Hereditary Zoroastrian priesthood has survived in India and Iran. They are termed Herbad, Mobad (Magupat, i.e. chief of the Maga), and Dastur depending on the rank.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
The Persians, informed of what had been done by the seven, and of the fraud of the magi, determined themselves also to do the like; and having drawn their daggers, they slew every magus they could find; and if the night coming on had not prevented, they would not have left a single magus alive. This day the Persians observe in common more than any other, and in it they celebrate a great festival, which they call…
Herodotus, The Boys' and Girls' Herodotus
Names Magi several times; opens on Magi.
judicious person who was talking to him; "abuses present themselves to thy eyes in crowds, while the good, which lies concealed, and which is even sometimes the result of these very abuses, escapes thy observation." He then learned that among men of letters there were some who were free from envy; and that even among the magi themselves there were some men of virtue. In fine, he concluded that these great bodies…
Voltaire, Voltaire's Romances, Complete in One Volume
Names Magi several times; the author is tied to Magi in the knowledge graph.
Towards the conclusion of his letter, he requests Anebo to inform him what the Egyptian wisdom indicates as the way to blessedness. But as to those who hold intercourse with the gods, and pester them only for the sake of finding a runaway slave, or acquiring property, or making a bargain of a marriage, or such things, he declares that their pretensions to wisdom are vain. He adds that these same gods, even granting…
of Hippo Augustine, The City of God, Volume I
States what Magi is; the author is tied to Magi in the knowledge graph.
Philosophers who discussed Magi
- Pyrrho
- Gemistos Plethon
- Pythagoras
- Numenius of Apamea
- Voltaire
- Shihab al-Din Yahya ibn Habash Suhrawardi
- Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius
- Clearchus of Soli
Related ideas
- Medes
- Jesus
- Gospel of Matthew
- Herodotus
- Heraclitus
- Agathias
- Iran
- Zurvanism
- Shaanxi
- Judaism
- Jerome
- Jerusalem
- Jihad
- Justin Martyr
- Lucian
- Avestan
- Latin
- Apuleius
- Ethiopia
- Iranian peoples
- Parthia
- Messiah
- Mahabharata
- Augustine of Hippo
Place in the tradition
Part of Nondualism.