MAGI, OR MAGEANS,
A title which the ancient Persians gave to their wise men or philosophers.
The learned are in great perplexity about the wordmagus,μαγ ος. Plato, Xenophon, Herodotus, Strabo, &c. derive it from the Persian language, in which it signifies a priest, or person appointed to officiate in holy things; asdruidamong the Gauls;gymnosophistamong the Indians; andLevite, among the Hebrews. Others derive it from the Greekμεγας, great; which they say, being borrowed of the Greeks, by the Persians, was returned in the formμαγος; but Vossius, with more probability, brings it from the Hebrewהגהhaga, to meditate; whenceמהגים, maaghim, in Latin,meditabundi, q. d. people addicted to meditation.
Magi, among the Persians, answers toσοφοι, orφιλοσοφοι, among the Greeks;sapientes, among the Latins;druids, among the Gauls;gymnosophists, among the Indians; andprophetsorpriestsamong the Egyptians.
The ancientmagi, according to Aristotle and Laertius, were the sole authors and conservators of the Persian philosophy; and the philosophy principally cultivated by them, was theology and politics; they being always esteemed as the interpreters of all law, both divine and human; on which account they were wonderfully revered by the people. Hence, Cicero observes, that nonewere admitted to the crown of Persia, but such as were well instructed in the discipline of themagi; who taughtτα βασιλικα, and showed princes how to govern.
Plato, Apuleius, Laertius, and others, agree, that the philosophy of themagirelated principally to the worship of the gods: they were the persons who were to offer prayers, supplications, and sacrifices, as if the gods would be heard by them alone. But according to Lucian, Suidas, &c. this theology, or worship of the gods, as it was called, about which the magi were employed, was little more than the diabolical art of divination; for thatμαγεια, strictly taken, was the art of divination.
Porphyry defines themagiwell; Cicero calls themdivina sapientes, &c. iniisdem ministrantes; adding, that the wordmagusimplied as much in the Persian tongue. These people, he says, are held in such veneration among the Persians, that Darius, the son of Hystaspes, among other things, had it engraved on his monument, that he was master of themagi.
Philo Judas describe themagito be diligent enquirers into nature, out of the love they bear to truth; and who, setting themselves apart from other things, contemplate the divine virtues the more clearly, and initiate others in the same mysteries.
Their descendants, the modernmagi, or fire worshippers, are divided into three classes; whereof the first and most learned, neither ate nor kill animals; but adhere to the old institutionof abstaining from living creatures. Themagiof the second class, refrain only from tame animals; nor do the last kill all indifferently, it being the firm distinguishing dogma of them all,τκν μετεμχυωσιυ ειναι,that there is a transmigration of souls.
To intimate the similitude between animals and men, they used to call the latter by the name of the former; thus, their fellow priests they called lions; the priestesses, lionesses; the servants, cows, &c.