E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Ma’gi (The),
according to one tradition, were Mel’chior, Gaspar, and Balthazar, three kings of the East. The first offered gold, the emblem of royalty, to the infant Jesus; the second, frankincense, in token of divinity; and the third, myrrh, in prophetic allusion to the persecution unto death which awaited the “Man of Sorrows.”
1
MELCHIOR means “king of light.”
GASPAR, or CASPAR, means “the white one.”
BALTHAZAR means “the lord of treasures.”
(Klopstock, in his Messiah, book v., gives these five names: Hadad, Selima, Zimri, Beled, and Sunith.)
2
Magi, in Camoens’ Lusiad, means the Indian “Brahmins.” Ammia’nus Marcelli’nus says that the Persian magi derivèd their knowledge from the Brahmins of India (i. 23); and Aria’nus expressly calls the Brahmins “magi” (i.7.).
