Magic 1, Requirement 4

Identify the terms used within one Indo-European language to identify 'magic' and 'magician' examining what these terms indicate about the position of the magician and the practice of his or her art. (minimum 100 words)

In Greece, the magic was most often called mageia, which basically means "the art or profession of a magos". Magos is a term derived from the Persian magi, and it contains a very negative connotation in Greece. The magos were generally seen as foreign priests, and are described by Heroditus as sacrificers, interpreters of deams, responsible for funerary rites, and as werewolves (seriously). Heraclitus of Ephesus describes them negatively as well: "I speak to the magoi, the ecstatic men and women, the initiated who roam through the night. The mysteries humans perform are performed in an unholy way." (Heraclitus, fragment 14).

Other terms of generally "magical" nature were the mantis (seer, a generally respected but peripheral position), the goes (or "begging priest", generally despised and described as a bunch of charlatans, but well-used), the kathartes (or "purification priests" who were also itinerant), and the dactyles (generally seen as sorcerers, exorcists, and wild-men).

Primay source for this question: lectures given by Dr. Fritz Graf, Magic in the Ancient World class, taught at Ohio State in Autumn Quarter, 2002

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