“sed aut ignem, aut spiritum, aut citatum aërem, aut gyrum stellarum, aut nimiam aquam, aut solem et lunam, rectores orbis terrarum deos putaverunt.”
“But deemed either fire, or wind, or the swift air, or the circle of the stars, or the violent water, or the lights of heaven, to be the gods which govern the world.”
“But either fire, or wind, or swift air, Or circling stars, or raging water, or luminaries of heaven, They thought to be gods that rule the world.”
Fire. The chief god of the Persians. — Wind. Zephyrus, &c. — Air. Which is perhaps the wind. Socrates was accused of adoring nothing, but heaven and the clouds, (Aristot.[Aristotle?] nub.) as the Jews were. Nil pręter nubes et Cœli numen adorant. (Juvenal xiv. 97.) — Stars. The zodiac, or pleiads. This species of idolatry was most ancient and general. — Water. The ocean, Neptune, &c. The Egyptians adored water above all, as the origin of other things. Hence they were punished first by it. (Philo, vit. Mor. 1.) — Moon. These were mostly the objects of worship, under the names of Baal, Astarte, (Calmet) the Phœbus, or Dianę of the Romans. (Haydock)