Among less cultivated nations also the same practice held, as with the natives of South America, whose name for the sun is a word meaning _it brings the day_; for the moon, _it brings the night_; and for Venus, _it announces the day_. But even among the Eastern nations, from whom the Greeks and Romans borrowed their astronomical systems, it soon became a practice to associate these planets with the names of the several divinities they worshipped. This was perhaps natural from the adoration they paid to the celestial luminaries themselves on account of their real or supposed influence on terrestrial affairs; and, moreover, as time went on, and heroes had appeared, and they had to find them dwelling-places in the heavens, they would naturally associate them with one or other of the most brilliant and remarkable luminaries, to which they might suppose them translated. Beyond these general remarks, only conjectures can be made why any particular divinity should among the Greeks be connected with the several planets as we now know them. Such conjectures as the following we may make. Thus Jupiter, the largest, would take first rank, and be called after the name of the chief divinity. The soft and sympathising Venus--appearing at the twilight--would well denote the evening star. Mars would receive its name from its red appearance, naturally suggesting carnage and the god of war. Saturn, or Kronos, the god of time, is personified by the slow and almost imperceptible motion of that remote planet. While Mercury, the fiery and quick god of thieves and commerce, is well matched with the hide-and-seek planet which so seldom can be seen, and moves so rapidly. These were the only planets known to the ancients, and were indeed all that could be discovered without a telescope. If the ancient Babylonians possessed telescopes, as has been conjectured from their speaking, as we have noticed above, of the increase of the size of Venus, and from the finding a crystal lens among the ruins of Nineveh, they did not use them for this purpose.