Magi

===Classical Greek===
The oldest surviving Greek reference to the magi&nbsp;– from Greek μάγος (''mágos'', plural: ''magoi'') – might be from 6th century BC [[Heraclitus]] (apud [[Clemens of Alexandria|Clemens]] ''[[Protrepticus (Clement)|Protrepticus]]'' 2.22.2<ref>{{Cite book |last=Butterworth |first=G W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xHBBswW6_oYC&pg=PA45 |title=Clement of Alexandria |date=1919 |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1919 |isbn=978-0-674-99103-3 |edition=Loeb Classical Library Volume 92 |location=Cambridge, MA. Harvard Universrity Press. |pages=45 |language=en}}</ref>), who curses the magi for their "impious" rites and rituals.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bremmer |first1=Jan N. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y02I4FW3om4C&pg=PR18 |title=The Metamorphosis of Magic from Late Antiquity to the Early Modern Period |last2=Veenstra |first2=Jan R. |date=2002 |publisher=Peeters Publishers |isbn=978-90-429-1227-4 |pages=2 |language=en}}</ref> A description of the rituals that Heraclitus refers to has not survived, and there is nothing to suggest that Heraclitus was referring to foreigners.

Better preserved are the descriptions of the mid-5th century BC [[Herodotus]], who in his portrayal of the [[Iranian peoples|Iranian]] expatriates living in [[Asia Minor]] uses the term "magi" in two different senses. In the first sense (''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'' 1.101<ref>{{Cite book |last=Herodotus |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QsIcxGrq6QAC&pg=PA41 |title=The Histories of Herodotus |date=1904 |publisher=D. Appleton |pages=41 |language=en}}</ref>), Herodotus speaks of the magi as one of the tribes/peoples (''ethnous'') of the [[Medes]]. In another sense (1.132<ref>{{Cite book |last=Herodotus |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QsIcxGrq6QAC&pg=PA54 |title=The Histories of Herodotus |date=1904 |publisher=D. Appleton |pages=54 |language=en}}</ref>), Herodotus uses the term "magi" to generically refer to a "[[sacerdotal]] caste", but "whose ethnic origin is never again so much as mentioned."<ref name="Zaehner_1961">{{cite book|last=Zaehner |first=Robert Charles |date=1961 |title=The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism |location=New York |publisher=MacMillan |page=163}}.</ref> According to [[Robert Charles Zaehner]], in other accounts, "we hear of Magi not only in [[Fars Province|Persia]], [[Parthia]], [[Bactria]], [[Chorasmia]], [[Aria (satrapy)|Aria]], [[Medes|Media]], and among the [[Sakas]], but also in non-Iranian lands like [[Samaria]], [[Ethiopia]], and [[Egypt]]. Their influence was also widespread throughout Asia Minor. It is, therefore, quite likely that the sacerdotal caste of the Magi was distinct from the Median tribe of the same name."<ref name="Zaehner_1961"/>

As early as the 5th century BC, Greek ''magos'' had spawned ''mageia'' and ''{{transl|grc|magike}}'' to describe the activity of a magus, that is, it was his or her art and practice.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Janowitz |first=Naomi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b_Fnv5MSQ2gC&pg=PA9 |title=Magic in the Roman World: Pagans, Jews and Christians |date=2002-09-11 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-63368-5 |pages=9 |language=en}}</ref> But almost from the outset the noun for the action and the noun for the actor parted company. Thereafter, ''mageia'' was used not for what actual magi did, but for something related to the word 'magic' in the modern sense, i.e. using supernatural means to achieve an effect in the natural world, or the appearance of achieving these effects through trickery or sleight of hand.<ref name=":0" /> The early Greek texts typically have the pejorative meaning, which in turn influenced the meaning of ''magos'' to denote a conjurer and a charlatan.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Peters |first=Edward |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PoFV65rO59gC&pg=PA1 |title=The Magician, the Witch, and the Law |date=1978 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-1101-6 |pages=1 |language=en}}</ref> Already in the mid-5th century BC, Herodotus identifies the ''magi'' as interpreters of omens and dreams (''Histories'' 7.19, 7.37, 1.107, 1.108, 1.120, 1.128<ref>{{Cite book |last=Herodotus |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QsIcxGrq6QAC |title=The Histories of Herodotus |date=1904 |publisher=D. Appleton |language=en}}</ref>).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bremmer |first=Jan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=id2wCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA240 |title=Greek Religion and Culture, the Bible and the Ancient Near East |date=2008-04-30 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-474-3271-5 |pages=240 |language=en}}</ref>

Other Greek sources from before the [[Hellenistic period]] include the gentleman-soldier [[Xenophon]], who had first-hand experience at the Persian [[Achaemenid]] court. In his early 4th century BC ''[[Cyropaedia]]'', Xenophon depicts the magians as authorities for all religious matters (8.3.11),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gera |first=Deborah Levine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uqTIHmg4LsoC&pg=PA56 |title=Xenophon's Cyropaedia: Style, Genre, and Literary Technique |date=1993 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-814477-9 |language=en}}</ref> and imagines the magians to be responsible for the education of the emperor-to-be. [[Apuleius]], a [[Numidian]] [[Platonist]] philosopher, describes magus to be considered as a "sage and philosopher-king" based on its [[Platonism|Platonic]] notion.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Too |first1=Yun Lee |title=The idea of the library in the ancient world |date=2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780199577804 |page=96}}</ref>