# μάγος
## Ancient Greek
### Etymology

Borrowed from Old Persian 𐎶𐎦𐏁 (m-gu-š /⁠maguš⁠/).

### Pronunciation

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

### Adjective

μάγος • (mágos) m or f (neuter μάγον); second declension
* magical

#### Descendants

* Latin: magus

### Noun

μάγος • (mágos) m (genitive μάγου); second declension
* (common, nonspecific) magician, and derogatorily sorcerer, trickster, conjurer, charlatan
    Synonyms: γόης (góēs), φᾰρμᾰκεύς (pharmakeús)
* (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.
* (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.

#### Derived terms

* μαγικός (magikós)

#### Descendants

* Greek: μάγος (mágos)
* → Coptic: ⲙⲁⲅⲟⲥ (magos)
* → Latin: magus (see there for further descendants)
* → Russian: маг (mag)

### References

* ↑ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “μάγος”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 889
* ↑ Kent, Roland G. (1950) Old Persian: grammar, texts, lexicon, New Haven: American Oriental Society
* ↑ Tolman, Herbert Cushing (1908) “magu”, in Ancient Persian lexicon and the texts of the Achaemenidan inscriptions transliterated and translated with special reference to their recent re-examination (Vanderbilt Oriental Series; 6), New York/Cincinnati/Chicago: American Book Company, pages 115-116

### Further reading

* “μάγος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* 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
* G3097 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
* Joseph Bidez and Franz Cumont, Les Mages hellénisés I, Paris, 1973.

## Greek
### Etymology

From Ancient Greek μάγος (mágos).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈma.ɣos/
* Hyphenation: μά‧γος

### Noun

μάγος • (mágos) m (plural μάγοι, feminine μάγισσα)
* magician
* wizard, sorcerer

#### Declension

| | singular | plural |
| nominative | μάγος • | μάγοι • |
| genitive | μάγου • | μάγων • |
| accusative | μάγο • | μάγους • |
| vocative | μάγε • | μάγοι • |

#### Related terms

* μαγεία f (mageía, “magic”)
* μαγεύω (magévo, “cast a spell, bewitch”)
* μαγικά (magiká, “magically”)
* μάγια f (mágia, “ferment, yeast”)