I’ve been watching American Gods, the television series adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s 2001 novel. Of course, the main character is Mr. Wednesday, who is Odin, the supreme mythological god. This got me to thinking. So, I looked it up, and sure enough, Wednesday comes from the Old English Wodnesdaeg or ‘day of Odin’ named after the Germanic god Odin or Woden. He is equated to the Roman God Mercury.
Odin
So, what about Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday you ask? Me too. So, I started researching. Now I really did know that Wednesday and Thursday were named after mythological gods, but the rest were news to me.
Monday comes from the Old English Monandaeg or ‘day of he moon.’ But the moon is steeped in mythology. Artemis, the Greek Goddess of the hunt, forests, hills, the moon, and archery is deeply attached to the moon, as are Selene and Hecate, all lunar goddesses. Artemis is the daughter of Jupiter/Zeus/Thor and twin sister to Apollo, God of the sun.
Monday comes from the Old English Monandaeg or ‘day of he moon.’ But the moon is steeped in mythology. Artemis, the Greek Goddess of the hunt, forests, hills, the moon, and archery is deeply attached to the moon, as are Selene and Hecate, all lunar goddesses. Artemis is the daughter of Jupiter/Zeus/Thor and twin sister to Apollo, God of the sun.
Artemis
Tuesday comes from the Old English Tiwesdaeg or day of Twi, a Germanic god of war and the sky. The translation from Latin is dies Marti or ‘day of Mars.’ The god Tiw is equated to the Roman God Mars.
Tiw or Mars
I’ll bet you know what the origin of Thursday is. It’s from the Old English Thu(n)resdaeg or ‘day of thunder’, named after Thunor or Thor, the Germanic god of thunder. The translation from Latin is Jovis dies or ‘day of Jupiter.’ Thor is equated with the Roman God Jupiter (or the Greek God Zeus).
Thor/Jupiter/Zeus
Friday is derived from the Old English Frigedaeg or ‘day of Frigga.’ Frigga is the Germanic goddess of married love and wife of Odin. She is equated to the Roman goddess of love, Venus.
Frigga
Saturday comes from Old English as well and translated from Latin means Saturni dies or ‘day of Saturn’. Saturn is the Roman god of agriculture. Kind of makes sense, right?
And that leaves Sunday. It, too, is Old English from Sunnandaeg or ‘day of the sun’. While it isn’t directly named for a god, like the moon, the sun was prominently figured in mythology with the gods, especially Apollo. The Egyptians worshipped the sun as a god. Most cultures relate it to the ‘Lord’s Day.'
So, there you have it.
Why is this fascinating to me? Because I write about the mythological gods in both my Snow Blood and Moon Blood series.
Til Next Time!
Carol
So, there you have it.
Why is this fascinating to me? Because I write about the mythological gods in both my Snow Blood and Moon Blood series.
Til Next Time!
Carol
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