 Ancient Greek scholarship of the 20th century, almost certainly influenced by Christianising preconceptions of the meanings of magic and religion, and the wish to establish Greek culture as the foundation of Western rationality, developed a theory of ancient Greek magic as primitive and insignificant, and thereby essentially separate from Homeric, communal (""polis"") religion.Since the last decade of the century, however, recognising the ubiquity and respectability of acts such as "katadesmoi" ("binding spells"), described as magic by modern and ancient observers alike, scholars have been compelled to abandon this viewpoint.The Greek word "mageuo" ("practise magic") itself derives from the word "Magos", originally simply the Greek name for a Persian tribe known for practising religion.