History of Magic: The Real Harry Potter

This article is intended to be a supplement to the History of Magic live lecture, and to provide references to those who wish to check the facts for themselves.

If you haven't seen the lecture live, the following information is still very interesting.

Although I created this lecture for Harry Potter Camp, the following material is true to the best of my research.

If he existed... and there's no proof that he did... the first magician would have been Djed-Sneferu in Ancient Egypt during the reign of Pharaoh Khufu circa 2700 B.C.E. (almost 5000 years ago!)

According to the legend, Djed-Sneferu lived over 110 years and performed such fantastic feats as foretelling the future, commanding fierce lions, and re-attaching decapitated heads. 1

Because there is no proof that Djed existed, credit for the discovery of magic is given to the ancient Persian prophet Zoroaster Circa 1700 B.C.E.

Zoroastrian Priests are called Magus. The Magus were so impressive to the ancient Greeks that they started to refer to anything that was amazing and un-explainable as 'Magus'- where we get the word Magic.