+331+. Among higher communities there are diverse conceptions of the sex
of the great luminaries. The word for 'sun' is feminine in Sanskrit,
Anglo-Saxon, German, and often in Hebrew; masculine in Babylonian,
Assyrian, Greek, and Latin. 'Moon' is masculine in Anglo-Saxon and
German, and generally in Sanskrit and the Semitic languages; feminine in
Greek and Latin. The reasons for these differences are to be sought in
the economic relations of the communities to sun and moon, and in the
play of imagination, but the history of the variations is not clear. One
proposed explanation is that to those who traveled by night on land or
on sea the moon was the strong guide and patron, and by day the sun
appeared as a splendidly beautiful woman. Other explanations have been
offered, but no general determining principle can be stated.[613]

+332+. The early anthropomorphic figures of sun and moon appear to be on
the verge of becoming true gods. It is, however, often difficult to
decide whether in the widespread veneration of the sun it is to be
regarded as a living thing (it is frequently represented as a man, a
great chief,[614] dwelling in the sky), or a physical object inhabited
by a spirit, or a fully developed god.[615] The transition to the higher
conception is gradual, and will be discussed below,[616] along with the
representations of the moon and the stars.

+333+. The view that the sky and the earth are the original progenitors
of things appears among many peoples, low and high (notably among the
Chinese); the two are sometimes taken for granted, but it is probable
that there were always stories accounting for their origin. The sky is
sometimes female, usually in the older myths (Maori, Egyptian),
sometimes male (Greek, Roman).[617]

+334+. Thunder and lightning are regarded in early systems of thought as
independent things, only locally or accidentally combined. They are
awful and terrible to savage feeling,[618] but they have never received
religious worship. A quasi-scientific explanation of thunder found among
certain peoples (North American, Brazilian, Bakuana, Karen, and others)
is that it is produced by the flapping of the wings of a mighty
bird.[619] More commonly thunder is the voice of a deity, and lightning
is his arrow,[620] or these are said simply to be sent by a god.[621]

WORSHIP OF HUMAN BEINGS[622]

+335+. We might naturally suppose that human beings, as well as animals,
plants, and inanimate thing