MagophoniaA festival observed by the Persians to commemorate the massacre of the Magi. Smerdis usurped the throne on the death of Cambyses; but seven Persians, conspiring together, slew Smerdis and his brother; whereupon the people put all the Magi to the sword, and elected Darius, son of Hystaspes, to the throne. (Greek, magosphonos, the magi-slaughter.) Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
|