06 January 2020
Word of the Day: Magi
MAGI. Members of the priestly caste of the Mazdean religion, with special
reference to the wise men who brought gifts to Jesus at his birth. The appearance
of an unusual star caused them to leave the East in search of a king of whose
birth the star was a sign. Herod asked them to return after finding the Infant.
But the Magi, warned in a dream, went back to the East by another way. They
are described as bringing symbolic gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Their
names, Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, are first mentioned in the sixth century.
The Adoration of the Magi early became one of the most popular subjects of representation
in art, the first extant painting being in the Cappela Greca of the Priscilla
Catacomb (Rome), dating from the second century.
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