Magi in turn the product of the Hellenistic fascination for (Pseudo‑)Zoroaster, who was perceived by the Greeks to be the Chaldean founder of the Magi and inventor of both astrology and magic, a meaning that still survives in the modern-day words "magic" and "magician". "μάγοι" from the east do homage to the newborn Jesus in Chapter 2 of the Gospel of Matthew, and the transliterated plural "magi" entered English from Latin in this context around 1200 (this particular use is also commonly rendered in English as "kings" and more often in recent times as "wise men"). The singular "magus" appears considerably
Biblical Magi tribute. The Syrian King Seleucus II Callinicus is recorded to have offered gold, frankincense and myrrh (among other items) to Apollo in his temple at Miletus in 243 BC, and this may have been the precedent for the mention of these three gifts in Gospel of Matthew (). It was these three gifts, it is thought, which were the chief cause for the number of the Magi becoming fixed eventually at three. This episode can be linked to and to , which report gifts being given by kings, and this has played a central role in the perception of the