Celsus and Hierocles: lesser powers honored so that the supreme God is never left
This is why Celsus, as Origen reports him, says that whoever venerates many gods does something pleasing to the supreme God by that very act, insofar as he worships one who is subject to the greatest God. He adds: "No one may be honored except those whom God wills to be honored; so whoever venerates his subjects does not offend him to whom all belong."
So he wants the lesser powers under the supreme God to be worshiped in such a way "that God is never in any way abandoned, not by night, not by day, not in private, not in public, not in any thought, not in any work, but that with these or without them the soul is always intent on God." Later he says: "In this way you will seem to venerate the great God the more, if you honor these too with hymns and praises." (Origen, Against Celsus, book 8.)
With this agrees what Hierocles teaches: "The gods are to be acknowledged and worshiped as distinct from their author and parent, but their dignity is not to be raised beyond measure; in the end their worship is to be referred to their one maker, whom you may properly call the God of gods, as supreme and best." (Hierocles, On the Pythagorean Verses, page 10.)
Latin
LXXV. Unde est quod Celsus apud Origenem affirmat Eum qui plures Deos veneratur, hoc ipso in quantum unum aliquem Deo maximo subditum colit, rem gratam summo Deo facere: & addit, Quod neminem honore prosequi licet, nisi quem ille honorari vult: quapropter qui veneretur ejus subditos non offendere illum cujus omnes sunt. Ideoque sic coli vult inferiores illas sub summo Deo potestates, Ut Deus nullo pacto unquam relinquatur, non noctu, non interdiu, non in privato, non in publico, non in cogitationibus ullis, non in operibus, sed sive cum his, sive sine his semper intenta sit ad Deum anima. Et postea, Sic, inquit, magnum Deum magis venerari videberis, si hos quoque hymnis honores & laudibus. Quibus consonum est quod docet Hierocles, Deos ita agnoscendos & colendos, ut sunt ab authore suo & parente distincti, non autem eorum dignitatem supra modum esse attollendam; denique cultum esse referendum ad eorum opificem unicum, quem Deum Deorum tanquam summum & optimum proprie nominare queas. Apud Orig. contra Cels. lib. 8. Hierocl. in carm. Pythag. pag. 10.