Deities

Primitive thinkers reified the organizing, creative, sustaining, and altering forces and laws of nature (and some of the exemplary objects that reveal them, e.g. the planets) and to the degree that these personifications were perceived as having autonomy in their respective spheres they were considered deities, being equally gods and goddesses, and in some cases, godlings. Some were considered to rule conjointly; some have autonomous functions rather than regions; some have little contact with men, others are presented as having more to do with human affairs.

Each of the planetary deities, for example, has symbolic meaning. Mainly they correlate to human physical functions, including brain-based cogitation (Saturn). The Sun and Moon Gods are referred to the spiritual and psychic faculties. Other gods symbolize different aspects of human personality and are sometimes represented antithetically or complementarily to one another, viz. Apollo and Dionysos, Anes (Mars) and Aphrodite (Venus). They may also be part of a set, e.g. as the brothers Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, symbolizing the celestial and terrestrial realms and the invisible, other-world; or as the set Oceanos, Ouranos, Chronos, Zeus, Dionysos, symbolizing the ages.