#artaban of medea

[ben-the-hyena]

Sixth day of Christmas : the Fourth Magi

Did you know that in numerous traditions it is a question of a fourth Magi who either got lost or didn't see the star ? He differs depending of countries and authors. For the poet Henry van Dyke in his tale The Story of Other Wise Man, he's Artaban of Medea, king of Persia, equipped with a pearl, a sapphire and a ruby, who arrived late when the Holy Family had left already, for years he would look for them wandering and giving his treasure little by little to those in need to such magnitude that when he finally meets Jesus the latter has him known he had honored him as much as if he had come to his birth. For Russians and Finnish, he lived in the North Pole and thus didn't see the star when it appeared since it was a polar night (you know, with the sun), so he stayed there but still wanted to honor that day by giving around gifts to children and became Santa Claus