MAGI, OR MAGEANS,
A title which the ancient Persians gave to their wise men or philosophers.
The learned are in great perplexity about the word magus, 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; as druid among the Gauls; gymnosophist among the Indians; and Levite, among the Hebrews. Others derive it from the Greek μεγας, great; which they say, being borrowed of the Greeks, by the Persians, was returned in the form μαγος; but Vossius, with more probability, brings it from the Hebrew הגה haga, to meditate; whence מהגים, maaghim, in Latin, meditabundi, q. d. people addicted to meditation.
Magi, among the Persians, answers to σοφοι, or φιλοσοφοι, among the Greeks; sapientes, among the Latins; druids, among the Gauls; gymnosophists, among the Indians; and prophets or priests among the Egyptians.
The ancient magi, 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 none were admitted to the crown of Persia, but such as were well instructed in the discipline of the magi; who taught τα βασιλικα, and showed princes how to govern.
Plato, Apuleius, Laertius, and others, agree, that the philosophy of the magi related 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 that μαγεια, strictly taken, was the art of divination.
Porphyry defines the magi well; Cicero calls them divina sapientes, &c. in iisdem ministrantes; adding, that the word magus implied 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 the magi.
Philo Judas describe the magi to 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 modern magi, or fire worshippers, are divided into three classes; whereof the first and most learned, neither ate nor kill animals; but adhere to the old institution of abstaining from living creatures. The magi of 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.