Book 12
19
A tradition has been handed down by the ancient thinkers of very early times, and bequeathed to posterity in the form of a myth, to the effect that these heavenly bodies are gods,This statement is not literally true. The planets do not seem to have been associated with the gods of popular mythology until the fourth century B.C. (see Burnet, E.G.P. p. 23 n.). But Aristotle’s general meaning seems to be that the gods were identified with the primary natural forces; and this is substantially true. and that the Divine pervades the whole of nature.
20
The rest of their tradition has been added later in a mythological form to influence the vulgar and as a constitutional and utilitarian expedientCf. Aristot. Met. 2.3.1.; they say that these gods are human in shape or are like certain other animals,e.g. the Egyptian deities. Zoomorphism in Greek religion is a doubtful quantity. and make other statements consequent upon and similar to those which we have mentioned.
21
Now if we separate these statements and accept only the first, that they supposed the primary substances to be gods, we must regard it as an inspired saying and reflect that whereas every art and philosophy has probably been repeatedly developed to the utmost and has perished again, these beliefs of theirs have been preserved as a relic of former knowledge. To this extent only, then, are the views of our forefathers and of the earliest thinkers intelligible to us.
