Privately This illustrates the very important distinction in ancient thought between public and private cult. Cities had their gods, groups within the city could celebrate other gods who were specially relevant to their activities or identities, and individuals celebrated cults that they felt were important to their own lives. Ordinarily there was no reason why there should be any conflict between these different forms of cult activity, for cults simply defined a community or group or person's own way of dealing with the natural world. So long as an individual's personal religious predilections did not offend a community's notion of the natural order, and thus, by implication, the gods who were the active overseers of that order, there was no need to take offense.