Biblical Magi - Representation in Other Art Forms

Representation in Other Art Forms

• Italian composer Ottorino Respighi wrote a composition called Trittico Botticelliano, based on three paintings by Botticelli, and one of the movements is called Adoration of the Magi.
• The Other Wise Man is a story by Henry van Dyke, published in 1896. It describes a fourth wise man who sets off with the other three, but turns aside along the way to perform acts of charity and arrives in Bethlehem too late to see the Christ Child. The story has been adapted numerous times for television, theater, and opera.
• "The Gift of the Magi" is a short story written by O. Henry (a pen name for William Sydney Porter), about a young married couple and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money.
• The Magi are featured in Menotti's opera Amahl and the Night Visitors, and in several Christmas carols, of which the best-known English one is "We Three Kings".
• In the film Donovan's Reef, a Christmas play is held in French Polynesia. However, instead of the traditional correspondence of Magi to continents, the version for Polynesian Catholics features the king of Polynesia, the king of America, and the king of China.
• Further sentimental narrative detail was added in the novel and movie Ben-Hur, where Balthasar (Finlay Currie) appears as an old man, who goes back to Palestine to see the former child Jesus become an adult.
• T. S. Eliot's poem The Journey of the Magi (1927) re-tells the story with a foreshadowing of the crucifixion, as does the poem Visit of the Wise Men by Timothy Dudley-Smith.
• In Michael Ende's children books Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver and Jim Button and the Wild 13, one of the Three Kings plays a major role in one of the main character's background.
• Salley Vickers's Miss Garnet's Angel links the Epiphany story, and arrival of the Magi, with the ancient Zoroastrian elements in the Book Of Tobit, a Biblical book in the Deuterocanon.
• The Biblical Magi were the subject of the 1980 novel Gaspard, Melchior and Balthasar by the French author Michel Tournier.
• The Magi are shown in a painting of prophecy in the game God of War II
• The names of the Biblical Magi are used in characters related to ancient and almost-lost knowledge in the videogames Chrono Trigger and Xenogears.
• The Magi are the subject of Norah Lofts' novel How Far To Bethlehem? (1965)
• In Neon Genesis Evangelion (anime and manga), 3 massive supercomputers are collectively known as the Magi.
• The Spanish 2003 animation film Los Reyes Magos (Antonio Navarro)
• The Biblical Magi were the subject of the 2005 play The Wise Man from India by Indian playwright Mathew G Kayalackakom.
• In David Morrell's 2008 novella "The Spy Who Came for Christmas", the Magi were intelligence agents sent to destabilize Herod's government.
• James Taylor's 1988 song "Home By Another Way" discusses the Magi's visit to Jesus and, specifically, their decision to avoid seeing Herod on their way home.
• In Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, the Three Wise Men appear to the crew of the Red Sprite, order them to follow the will of God and allow themselves to be enslaved by an angel's song. Should the protagonist follow the Law path, they will continue to appear to provide advice.
• Christopher Moore explores the idea that one of the three kings was of Chinese origin in his novel Lamb.
• In the manga and anime Magi, the four Magi are magicians loved by the Rukh whose role is to choose a king candidate. There are only supposed to be three Magi, however, the main character Aladdin is the unprecedented fourth.