If you want to learn more about Ancient Persian and Zoroastrian magic, “Original Magic: The Rituals and Initiations of the Persian Magi” by PhD researcher Stephen E. “Then, when the palace gates were thrown open, there were led out at the head of the procession four abreast some exceptionally handsome bulls for Zeus and for the other gods as the magi directed for the Persians think that they ought much more scrupulously to be guided by those whose profession is with things divine than they are by those in other professions.” Xenophon, Cyropaedia 8.3.11 Xenophon, described the Magi as a type of priest or spiritual advisor: They declared to him that the god was showing the Greeks the abandonment of their cities for the sun (they said) was the prophet of the Greeks, as the moon was their own.” Herodotus, The Histories 7.37Īnother writer of a similar period, the 5th/4th century BC, “When Xerxes saw and took note of that, he was concerned and asked the Magi what the vision might signify. The Magi interpreted it in this way” Herodotus, The Histories 7.19 This was the vision: Xerxes thought that he was crowned with an olive bough, of which the shoots spread over the whole earth, and then the crown vanished from off his head where it was set. “Xerxes was now intent on the expedition and then saw a third vision in his sleep, which the Magi interpreted to refer to the whole earth and to signify that all men should be his slaves. “He communicated this vision to those of the Magi who interpreted dreams, and when he heard what they told him he was terrified” Herodotus, The Histories 1.107 Herodotus also tells us that the Magi were skilled at interpretingĭreams and visions, and were called upon by royalty as advisors and prophets: Then after a little while the sacrificer carries away the flesh and uses it as he pleases.” Herodotus, The Histories 1.132 When he has so arranged it, a Magus comes near and chants over it the song of the birth of the gods, as the Persian tradition relates it for no sacrifice can be offered without a Magus. He then cuts the victim limb from limb into portions, and, after boiling the flesh, spreads the softest grass, trefoil usually, and places all of it on this. To pray for blessings for himself alone is not lawful for the sacrificer rather, he prays that the king and all the Persians be well for he reckons himself among them. “And this is their method of sacrifice to the aforesaid gods: when about to sacrifice, they do not build altars or kindle fire, employ libations, or music, or fillets, or barley meal: when a man wishes to sacrifice to one of the gods, he leads a beast to an open space and then, wearing a wreath on his tiara, of myrtle usually, calls on the god. Time describing them as a priestly caste whose role is to officiate over Herodotus has another passage relating to the Magi, this In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” Matthew 2:1-2 Their role as the Three Wise Men who brought gifts of gold, frankincense and Practice of astrology and alchemy, and are of course most famous in the west in “The Median tribes are these: the Busae, the Paretaceni, the Struchates, the Arizanti, the Budii, the Magi.” Herodotus, The Histories 1.101 Historian living in the 5th century BC, describes the “magoi” as one of many It is also possible that the term referred to a tribe orĮthnicity rather than an occupation or skill – Herodotus, an Ancient Greek He describes a pretender to the throne, Gaumata, as a magus – so not a great sorcerer or religious official, but rather a trickster or fraud, perhaps similar in meaning to “charlatan” today. The earliest use of the term “magus” to denote a practitioner of magic, was by Darius the Great of Persia (550-486 BC), in the Behistun Inscription. The word “magic” comes down to us from Old Persian “magu” (via Greek “μάγος”, and Latin “magus”). We have the Ancient Persians to thank for magic, going right back to the 5th century BC.
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