Μάγος

See also: μάγος

Ancient Greek

FWOTD – 29 March 2015

Etymology

From an Old Iranian language presumably akin to Old Median/Old Persian 𐎶𐎦𐎢𐏁 (m-gu-u-š /⁠maguš⁠/) and Avestan 𐬨𐬊𐬕𐬎 (moġu). Both attested Old Iranian words are hapaxes, and of indeterminable meaning. Perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂gʰ- (“to be able”). Probably unrelated to Avestan 𐬨𐬀𐬔𐬀 (maga) (cognate with Sanskrit मघ (magha, “gift”)). Attestation in Greek predates attestation in Old Iranian. See also μῆχος (mêkhos), μηχανή (mēkhanḗ).

Compare also Aramaic 𐡌𐡂𐡅𐡔 (mgwš) and Arabic مجوس (majūs).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /má.ɡos/ → /ˈma.ɣos/ → /ˈma.ɣos/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /má.ɡos/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈma.ɡos/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈma.ɣos/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈma.ɣos/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈma.ɣos/

Noun

Μάγος • (Mágos) m (genitive Μάγου); second declension

1. (common, nonspecific) magician, and derogatorily sorcerer, trickster, conjurer, charlatan
2. (common, specific) a Zoroastrian priest. Compare e.g. Herodotus Hist. 1.132f, Xenophon Cyropedia 8.3.11, Porphyry Life of Pythagoras 12, Heraclitus apud Clemens Protrepticus 12, etc.
3. (hapax) name of one of the tribes of the Medes. This usage is only attested once; Herodotus Histories 1.101.

Usage notes

• Meanings #1 and #2 overlap in classical usage— both derive from the Greek (and generally Hellenistic) identification of "Zoroaster" as the "inventor" of astrology and magic. The first meaning ('magician') derives from the sense of "practitioner of the Zoroaster's craft", and the second meaning ('priest') from the sense of "practitioner of Zoroaster's religion".
• Meanings #2 and #3 were frequently conflated as one in 18th/19th/early 20th-century usage, giving "name of a Median priestly tribe" or similar. This combined meaning is no longer used in current scholarship.

Inflection

Second declension of ὁ Μᾰ́γος; τοῦ Μᾰ́γου (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ Μᾰ́γος ho Mágos	τὼ Μᾰ́γω tṑ Mágō	οἱ Μᾰ́γοι hoi Mágoi
Genitive	τοῦ Μᾰ́γου toû Mágou	τοῖν Μᾰ́γοιν toîn Mágoin	τῶν Μᾰ́γων tôn Mágōn
Dative	τῷ Μᾰ́γῳ tôi Mágōi	τοῖν Μᾰ́γοιν toîn Mágoin	τοῖς Μᾰ́γοις toîs Mágois
Accusative	τὸν Μᾰ́γον tòn Mágon	τὼ Μᾰ́γω tṑ Mágō	τοὺς Μᾰ́γους toùs Mágous
Vocative	Μᾰ́γε Máge	Μᾰ́γω Mágō	Μᾰ́γοι Mágoi
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

• μάγος (mágos)

References

• “Μάγος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “Μάγος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Μάγος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press