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Meetings with Magi: Iranian Themes among the Greeks, from Xanthus of Lydia to Plato's Academy*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2009

Extract

There are not many people who can be said to have done something first. To Xanthus of Lydia belongs the distinction of being the first person on record to write in Greek about Zoroaster and aspects of Iranian religion. Not a Greek but writing in Greek, and living in the country that still joins Asia and Europe, he was to play an exemplary role in presenting details of an eastern religion directly to a western audience.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1995

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Footnotes

*

An explanation of abbreviations used in the footnotes is given at the end of the paper. My thanks to all who have helped in various ways with comments and advice, especially to Mary Boyce, Christopher Walker and Martin West; and to the Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation, in London, for practical assistance.

References

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