Greek worship of stars (1)

Text
Plato, Laws 821b-d:
Clinias: … but what science of this kind shall we find on the subject of stars?
Athenian: At present, my good sirs, nearly all we Greeks say what is false about those mighty deities, the Sun and Moon.
Clinias: What is the falsehood?
Athenian: We assert that they, and some other stars along with them, never travel along the same path; and we call them planets.
Clinias: Yes, by Zeus, Stranger, that is true; for I, during my life, have often noticed how Phosphorus and Hesperus and other stars never travel on the same course, but wander all ways; but as to the Sun and Moon, we all know that they are constantly doing this.
Athenian: It is precisely for that reason, Megillus and Clinias, that I now assert that our citizens and our children ought to learn so much concerning all these facts about the gods of Heaven as to enable them not to blaspheme about them, but always to speak piously both at sacrifices and when they prey reverently at prayers.

Source (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Plato, Laws 821b-d

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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