ASTROLATRY. This 'worship of the heavenly bodies' is a genera] term (here including for convenience the worship Of heaven itself) for what used to be called Sabaism. Sun and moon gods are not always early divinities. They were unknown, for example, to the older Roman cult, though the Romans worshiped earth and sky. The Aryan Hindu worshiped the sun before he did the moon; the Dravidian feared the sun as a malignant demon: while Ids Munda neighbor worshiped the same power as a beneficent divinity. The Babylonians perhaps worshiped Sin, the moon, before Bel, the sun; the Hot tentots worshiped the moon and not the sun, though they revered Dawn. On the other hand, reversing the Roman order, the Aztecs and American Indians worshiped the sun and not the sky. There is no general principle of pro gression, such as has often been sought. The stars, again, are in some cases the last of the heavenly bodies. to he worshiped; in other• a stellar mythology antedates solar or lunar gods. it is especially in connection with star-worship that the wildest theories of mythologists have been evolved. According to some scholars, all Semitic and Aryan mythology reverts to star worship, and this is supposed to have been the chief religion of the Accadians and Hit tites, about whose religion, however, we know in fact very little. It is often claimed that wo•ship is posterior to ghost-wo•ship, and in some cases it. is probable that a fully developed sun-worship was superimposed upon a more primitive cult. as among the Aztecs: but the Polynesian sun-light spirit is as antique as any god in the South Pacific, and sun-wo• ship appears not only among the earliest Hindus, but also among the savage .:\lunda tribes. Probably in some races sun-worship was as early as any form of nature-wo•ship, and may be as old as ghost-wo•slip. The beginnings of the worship of heavenly phenomena may be seen even among the Central Australians, who in voke the sun and lightning as living powers. The most remarkable development of ,1111-WI .1.-Arip is to be found among the Mexicans and the Peru vians. where it has eclipsed all other forms: the Babylonians, where the highest gods were identi fied with the shin and 01000: the Dravidians, among whom, as among the related Mongolians, sun-wo•ship is generallv found; and the Persians, (-specially in the Mithracult developed out of decadent Zoroastrianism. In Greece is represented by Apollo. and in India by Vishnu. but. in If rather perfunctory way. Neither of these gods can he said to he worshiped as the sun, though both retain traces of their earlier conception ill the disk symbol rind mythological characterization as arrow-shooting, pest-bringing.
and yet kindly disposed divinities. The sun is represented ill many religions, as ill India. under the figure of a bull or horse, or bird. or as riding in a car dragged by seven steeds, 11r as having lays. Sun and moon are the goal of souls in several religions, such as the Polynesian 111111 II inch!.
\11 worship of phenomena tends to personifi cation. The question how far the thing and how far the spirit in the thing is worshiped cannot be (-red categorically, for the answer depends on time, place, and object. Eventually. as in Greece and Germany. ill Zeus and the physical background almost vanishes. and only spirits remain, conceived as quite human. Even in the earliest stages of plienon1cnolatry, there does not appear to be any worship of the object as a physical thing, hut only as a spirit-holding or spirit-inilmed, i.e. spiritualized object. though in this stage spirit and life may not be distinguished. As to whether man first worshiped major or minor objects of nature. opinion is divided, as it is ill regard to animism preceding nature-wor ship. Generally speaking, English scholars hold to animism as the earliest ; German scholars to nature in its grander aspects; and the French to minor nature-worship. From an ethical point of view. it is to be observed that pure nat tin-worship cannot be sha'p'e sundered from 'ethical reli gions.' Even taboo (q.v.) is ethical, and lofty ethics is found in connection with purely physical gods. The 'eye of heaven' that marks the sin of man is a natural interpretation of the all-seeing sun :is soon as a man evolves ethical ideas and at tributes them to his gods,..
Consult: Primitire Culture ( Boston, 18711; Max Natural Religion (2d ed..
London. Lang, Magic and Religion (ili„ 19(11) ; Sanssaye. (Freiburg. 1857 ) ; Brint on. Myths of thr .V111' World (New York. 18681 ; Print itirc Man in Ohio 18921: l'ergusson, Tree and Serpent Worship, and !hole StOne Monuments (London, 1872) ; Sayer.. of the I lemiaas 1887) : -fast row, /i'rliyion of Baby lonia and Issyria (Boston. 1g981 tire h',./igions of l/csico and Peru (London.. 18841: Crooke, Popular b'eliyion and Polk-Lore of Vortbern India I8911); \lona. l.11 migration des Nyiabolcs 1891 ; Lcji urn, 1,a r? Briton I8921 : AV:i ring, l'orms of Solar and Vuture ( London. 1874) ; Buckland, ..Inthropolouicul Studies (ib., 1891) ; Frazer, Goiden lloituh ( ili.„ 1900).