further through an unbroken tradition to take the form of modern Hinduism, an exonym used for the modern form of Vedic religion. Ancient Greek religion and the following the Etruscan religion and the Religion in ancient Rome was strongly influenced by ancient Near Eastern religion, but is usually not included in the term. The Greco-Roman mysteries of the Hellenistic period were again consciously connected with ancient Egyptian religion. The origins of the Roman Mithraism, however, are not resolved. There are theories of an origin in the Indian Vedic religion, the Zoroastrianism and the Greco-Roman Religion like Orion. There are broad practices that these religions often hold in common: Purification and cleansing rituals Sacrifices (plant and animal sacrifice, libations, rarely, but prominently in mythology, human sacrifice) Polytheism (Though Egypt and Greece were Henotheistic societies) City-state–sponsored religions (theocracy) Sacred prostitution Divination Magic (invocations, conjurings and talismans) Typically, ancient Near Eastern religions were centered on theocracies, with a dominating regional cult of the god of a city-state. There were also super-regional mythemes and deities, such as the God Tammuz and the descent to the underworld. Divinations: Apantomancy: seeing animals Cleromancy: drawing lots Hepatoscopy: observing the liver of an animal Nephomancy: cloud-watching Ornithomancy: watching birds in flight Capnomancy: divination through smoke Oneiromancy: divination through dreams Semitic Mesopotamia Astrology Identification of the gods and goddesses with heavenly bodies—planets, stars, the sun and the moon—and to assigning the seats of all the deities in the Heavens is found in Assyro-Babylonian religion. The personification of the two great luminaries—the sun and the moon—was the first step in the unfolding of this system, and this was followed by placing the other deities where Shamash and Sin had their seats. This process, which reached its culmination in the post-Hammurabic period, led to identifying the planet Venus with Ishtar, Jupiter with Marduk, Mars with Nergal, Mercury with Nabu, and Saturn with Ninurta. The system represents a harmonious combination of two factors, one of popular origin, the other the outcome of speculation in the schools attached to the temples of Babylonia. The popular factor is the belief in the influence exerted by the movements of the heavenly bodies on occurrences on earth—a belief naturally suggested by the dependence of life, vegetation and guidance upon the two great luminaries. Starting with this belief the Priests and Priestesses built up the theory of the close correspondence between occurrences on earth and phenomena in