care of a divine being--a procedure
which is simply carrying out in greater detail modes of thought which we
have seen to be common in many of the lower tribes. Augustine thinks
this specialization amusing, ridiculous, and difficult to understand. He
brings up the whole question of origin when he asks why it was necessary
to have two goddesses for the waves of the sea--one, Venilia,
representing the wave as advancing to the shore; the other, Salacia,
representing the wave as receding.[1127] This seems, to be sure, an
unnecessary specialization; but, considered in connection with the whole
Roman system, it is not less intelligible than the multiplication of
deities attending upon the birth and education of a child, on the
processes of farming, and on the fortunes of war. Since human life is
guided by the gods, thought the Romans, there is no act that may not
have its god; this system is the objectivation of the conception of
divine special providence.[1128]

+671+. To certain Semitic deities highly specialized functions have been
supposed to belong; but the known facts hardly warrant this supposition.
In the names Baal-Marqod, Baal-Marpe, Baal-Gad, the second element may
be the name of a place; that is, the Baal may be a local deity (as the
Baals elsewhere are). The title Baal-berit[1129] has been interpreted as
meaning "lord of a covenant"--that is, a deity presiding over treaties;
but the expression is not clear. Baalzebub is in the Old Testament the
god of the Philistine city Ekron, where he had a famous oracle;[1130] it
is highly improbable that the name means "lord of flies" (which would
rather be Baal-zebubim), but the sense is obscure. The New Testament
Baal [Beel]-zebul[1131] (the only correct form) has been variously
explained. The second element, _zebul_, occurs in the Old Testament as a
name of the heavenly abode of the deity,[1132] and the title has been
regarded as the Semitic rendering of a Greek or Roman title of a god of
heaven (Zeus Ouranios; cf. Caelestis, epithet of Jupiter); as foreign
deities were called "demons" by the later Jews, the chief of these
deities, it is held, might well be taken to be the "prince of demons."
However this may be, Beelzebul cannot be ranked among the deities with
highly specialized functions.[1133]

+672+. The scheme of gods just described is closely allied to that of
tutelary deities for individual human beings. A transitional step may be
recognized in the assignment of