If I look into the sky and I see two yellow dots it’s all stars for me. Then I hear one of them is mars and I’m like „ok, still looks the same“. How did the people hundred of years ago discover what’s a close planet and what’s a far away star?
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Observing celestial phenomena was vitally important for early cultures. It wasn’t just a hobby, it helped them to keep track of the passage of time and therefore how to plan for the future. There’s a reason why so many ancient religious ceremonies are timed for certain celestial phenomena; that was the basis of their calendar.
So, of course, any culture that uses the stars as a way to plan their lives will get to learn familiar constellations and categorize the brightest stars. And that’s what the planets originally were to them: stars. Specifically, stars that wandered. They didn’t stay in their constellations, they moved around the sky. Thus, the Greeks called them planets, which came from the same root as their word for ‘wanderer’.
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