les. Too much must not be made, therefore, of the
Greek and Roman identifications of alien deities with their own.
Mulla, the Gaulish mule god, may have resembled Mars somewhat, but it
is a "far cry" from Mars-Mulla to Mars-Nergal, as it is also from the
Gaulish Moccus, the boar, called "Mercury", to Nebo, the god of
culture, who was the "Mercury" of the Tigro-Euphrates valley.
Similarly the differences between "Jupiter-Amon" of Egypt and
"Jupiter-Merodach" of Babylon were more pronounced than the
resemblances.

The basal idea in Babylonian astrology appears to be the recognition
of the astral bodies as spirits or fates, who exercised an influence
over the gods, the world, and mankind. These were worshipped in groups
when they were yet nameless. The group addressed, "Powerful, O
sevenfold, one are ye", may have been a constellation consisting of
seven stars.[337] The worship of stars and planets, which were
identified and named, "seems never to have spread", says Professor
Sayce, "beyond the learned classes, and to have remained to the last
an artificial system. The mass of the people worshipped the stars as a
whole, but it was only as a whole and not individually."[338] The
masses perpetuated ancient animistic beliefs, like the pre-Hellenic
inhabitants of Greece. "The Pelasgians, as I was informed at Dodona,"
wrote Herodotus, "formerly offered all things indiscriminately to the
gods. They distinguished them by no name or surname, for they were
hitherto unacquainted with either; but they called them gods, which by
its etymology means disposers, from observing the orderly disposition
and distribution of the various parts of the universe."[339] The
oldest deities are those which bore no individual names. They were
simply "Fates" or groups called "Sevenfold". The crude giant gods of
Scotland are "Fomhairean" (Fomorians), and do not have individual
names as in Ireland. Families and tribes were controlled by the Fates
or nameless gods, which might appear as beasts or birds, or be heard
knocking or screaming.

In the Babylonian astral hymns, the star spirits are associated with
the gods, and are revealers of the decrees of Fate. "Ye brilliant
stars... ye bright ones... to destroy evil did Anu create you.... At
thy command mankind was named (created)! Give thou the Word, and with
thee let the great gods stand! Give thou my judgment, make my
decision!"[340]

The Indian evidence shows that the constellations, and especially