Magi

The magi (singular magus) were priests in Zoroastrianism and earlier Iranian religions. The earliest known use of the word is in the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great, of about 520 BCE, and in the mid-5th century BCE Herodotus described the magi both as a tribe of the Medes and as a priestly caste who interpreted omens and dreams. Through Greek the word came to mean a practitioner of magic, the source of the modern words magic and magician. In the Gospel of Matthew, magi from the east pay homage to the infant Jesus, a use rendered in English as kings or wise men. A hereditary Zoroastrian priesthood survives in India and Iran.