DII, the divinities of the ancient inhabitants of the earth, which were very numerous. Every object which caused terror, inspired gratitude, or bestowed affluence, received the tribute of veneration. Man saw a superior agent in the stars, the elements, or the trees; and supposed that the waters which communicated fertility to his fields and possessions were under the influence and direction of some invisible power inclined to favour and to benefit mankind. Thus arose a train of divinities, which imagination arrayed in different forms, and armed with different powers. They were endowed with understanding, and were actuated by the same passions which daily afflict the human race; and those creations of superstition were appeased or provoked in the same manner as the imperfect being who gave them birth. Their wrath was mitigated by sacrifices and incense, and sometimes human victims bled to expiate a crime which superstition alone supposed to exist. The sun, from his powerful influence and animating nature, first attracted the notice and claimed the adoration of the uncivilized inhabitants of the earth. The moon also was honoured with sacrifices and addressed in prayers; and after immortality had been liberally bestowed on all the heavenly bodies, mankind classed amongst their deities the brute creation, and the cat and the sow shared equally with Jupiter himself, the father of gods and men, the devout veneration of their votaries. This immense number of deities has been divided into different classes, according to the will and pleasure of the mythologists. The Romans, generally speaking, reckoned two classes of the gods, the dii majorum gentium or dii consentes, and the dii minorum gentium. The former were twelve in number, namely, six males and six females. (Vid. Consentes.) In the class of the latter were ranked all the gods who were worshipped in different parts of the earth. Besides these, there were divinities called dii selecti, sometimes classed with the twelve greater gods; these were Janus, Saturn, the Genius, the Moon, Pluto, and Bacchus. There were also some called demigods, that is, persons who deserved immortality by the greatness of their exploits, and for their uncommon services to mankind. Amongst these were Priapus, Vertumnus, Hercules, and those whose parents were some of the immortal gods. Besides, all the passions and the moral virtues were reckoned as powerful deities, and temples were raised to a goddess of concord, of peace, and the like. According to Hesiod, there were no less than thirty thousand gods that inhabited the earth, and were guardians of men, all subservient to the power of Jupiter. To these succeeding ages added an almost equal number; and indeed they were so numerous, and their functions so various, that we find temples erected, and sacrifices offered, to [7:8:30]unknown gods. It is observable that all the gods of the ancients had lived upon earth as mere mortals; nay even Jupiter, who was the ruler of heaven, is represented by the mythologists as a helpless child; and we are acquainted with all the particulars which attended the birth and education of Juno. In process of time not only good and virtuous men, who had been the patrons of learning and the supporters of liberty, but also thieves and pirates, were admitted amongst the gods; and the Roman senate courteously granted the apotheosis to the most cruel and abandoned of their emperors.