magicthem around the mad person. Therefore, madness can become a symbol
of a holy person, a sign of religious realization, and points to the absurdi-
ties of conventional social life.Further reading: Kinsley (1974); Olson (1990); Sanford (1981); Saward (1980)MAGIC
The term can be traced back to the Greek mageia (Latin, magia) and
beyond to the Persian magos (a priest or religious specialist). The ancient
Persian meaning also implies a secret tribe or society, who are individu-
als responsible for royal sacrifices, funeral rites, divination, and interpre-
tation of dreams. The magician is an expert technician of the sacred,
especially with secret and mysterious words. These powerful words are
used in rites intended to harm enemies, which also gives the practitioner
access to higher spiritual powers. In ancient Greece, magic is viewed as
a gift from the gods. By the end of the sixth century in Greece, magic
acquires negative connotations that are suggested by the magician being
described as a beggar priest, diviner, and wanderer of the night. Along
with wizardry, magic represents the art of deception. In ancient Greece
and Rome, the negative connotation is associated with its foreign origin
in Persia. The foreignness of magic is emphasized by the magician’s use
of foreign names that represent a reversal of ordinary linguistic usage.
Contrary to some earlier theories, magic does not precede religion in
some kind of evolutionary sequence, and it does not necessarily follow
religion because religion contains magic. It is certainly true that as his-
torically early as the Greek philosophers Heraclitus and Plato a dichot-
omy develops between religion and magic, with magic portrayed as
attempting to persuade the gods, whereas religion allows gods free choice
and humans characteristically submit to the will of the deities. This dis-
tinction points to the magician’s coercion of the gods by invocation, a
form of verbal compulsion, rather than using other methods at their dis-
posal such as constraining the gods by trickery or extortion. These meth-
ods are combined with knowledge of divine nature that enables the
magician to communicate with the gods, which demonstrates the close
relationship between the magician and the deities, and it suggests the
magician’s ability to get the gods to behave favorably toward clients of
the magician.
In ancient Rome, the magician performs two functions during an early
period: healing and divination. In time, divination is transformed into