Astrolatry
<p><b>Astrolatry</b> is the worship of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stars" class="mw-redirect" title="Stars">stars</a> and other <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavenly_body" class="mw-redirect" title="Heavenly body">heavenly bodies</a> as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deity" title="Deity">deities</a>, or the association of deities with heavenly bodies. The most common instances of this are <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_god" class="mw-redirect" title="Sun god">sun gods</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_god" class="mw-redirect" title="Moon god">moon gods</a> in polytheistic systems worldwide. Also notable is the association of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet" title="Planet">planets</a> with deities in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_religion" title="Babylonian religion">Babylonian</a>, and hence in Greco-Roman religion, viz. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_%28mythology%29" title="Mercury (mythology)">Mercury</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus" title="Venus">Venus</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars" title="Mars">Mars</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter" title="Jupiter">Jupiter</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn" title="Saturn">Saturn</a>.</p>
<p>
<i>Astrolatry</i> comes from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek" title="Ancient Greek">Greek</a> ἄστρον <i>astron</i>, "star" and the suffix -λάτρης, itself related to <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%BB%CE%AC%CF%84%CF%81%CE%B9%CF%82" class="extiw" title="wikt:λάτρις">λάτρις</a> <i>latris</i>, "worshipper" or λατρεύειν <i>latreuein</i>, "to worship" from λάτρον <i>latron</i>, "payment."</p>
<p>
The term <b>astro-theology</b> is used in the context of 18th to 19th century scholarship aiming at the discovery of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urreligion" title="Urreligion">original religion</a>, particularly <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urmonotheismus" title="Urmonotheismus">primitive monotheism</a>. Unlike <i>astrolatry</i>, which usually implies <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytheism" title="Polytheism">polytheism</a>, frowned upon as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idolatry" title="Idolatry">idolatrous</a> by Christian authors since <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusebius" title="Eusebius">Eusebius</a>, astrotheology is any "religious system founded upon the observation of the heavens",<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrolatry#cite_note-1"><sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference">[1]</sup></a> and in particular, may be <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotheism" title="Monotheism">monotheistic</a>.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_astronomy" title="Babylonian astronomy">Babylonian astronomy</a> from early times associates stars with deities, but the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven" title="Heaven">heavens</a> as the residence of an anthropomorphic pantheon, and later of monotheistic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God" title="God">God</a> and his retinue of angels, is a later development, gradually replacing the notion of the pantheon residing or convening on the summit of high mountains.</p>
<p>
Sayce (1913) argues a parallelism of the "stellar theology" of Babylon and Egypt, both countries absorbing popular star-worship into the official pantheon of their respective state religions by identification of gods with stars or planets.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrolatry#cite_note-2">[2]</a></sup>
Astrolatry does not appear to have been common in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levant" title="Levant">Levant</a> prior to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Age" title="Iron Age">Iron Age</a>, and becomes popular under <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Assyrian_Empire" title="Neo-Assyrian Empire">Assyrian</a> influence. </p>
<p>
The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabaeans" title="Sabaeans">Sabaeans</a> were notorious for their astrolatry, for which reason the practice is also known as "Sabaism" or "Sabaeanism". </p>
<p>
Similarly, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaldea" title="Chaldea">Chaldeans</a> came to be seen as the prototypical astrologers and star-worshippers by the Greeks.</p>
<p>
The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_Bible" title="Hebrew Bible">Hebrew Bible</a> contains repeated reference to astrolatry. Thus, Deuteronomy 4:19, 17:3 contains a stern warning against worshipping the sun, moon, stars or any of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavenly_host" title="Heavenly host">heavenly host</a></p>