Zeus did, however, have an ancient and important oracle at Dodona in northwest Greece is the site of a sanctuary that housed an oracle of Zeus. Pausanias has an interesting account of this oracle as well, one in which the relationship between Zeus and Gaia is also highlighted.
The other oracle of Gaia mentioned by Pausanias was at Delphi, a site located in Phocis in central Greece in a rugged, mountainous setting. The Greeks regarded Delphi as the center of the world, and in fact marked the exact center with a conical stone called the omphalos or "navel".
More important for our immediate purposes is the fact that the gods came to be treated in this way as well. The first planet to be distinguished from the fixed stars was Venus, which is the the brightest object in the sky after the sun and the moon. As such, it is often the first ÒstarÓ (as the Greeks regarded it) to appear in the evening and the last to disappear before sunrise. It was therefore regarded as escorting the sunset or the dawn. Eventually other planets (literally Òwandering starsÓ as distinct from Òfixed starsÓ) were distinguished. The Greeks probably were assisted in this by the much more advanced Babylonians, whose knowledge of astronomy and mathematics was highly developed. The Babylonians understood the movements of the planets and regarded them as powerful divinities which they identified with the gods and goddesses of their pantheon. Over time, the Greeks (and apparently the Egyptians and Hindus as well) followed the practice of the Babylonians and named the planets after their own gods and goddesses. In addition, they believed that the five known planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn), along with the Sun and the Moon, each ÒruledÓ the heavens for one hour of a continuously-repeating seven-hour cycle; and whichever of the planets happened to be in control at the beginning of each twenty-four hour period gave its name to that day. According to this scheme the sun ruled the first day, the moon the second day, and so forth. These beliefs gave rise to what has become our week.
The power of the stars extended well beyond the mere naming of the days of the week and extended to the entire field of astrology, which was (and is) distinct from astronomy. Ancient literature shows different kinds of interest in both astrology and astronomy, as we shall see later in the semester.