Topic: priesthood (1)

• PeopleThe Magi

  The hereditary priestly specialists of the western Iranians, named by Herodotus as one of the six tribes of the Medes: the officiants without whom, the Greeks report, no Persian could sacrifice. They tended the sacred fire, chanted over the offering, poured libations to river and mountain, interpreted dreams and omens, exposed the dead, and attended the king; from their name, through Greek suspicion of their arts, comes the word 'magic'.