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Days of the week
Posted:
Tue Nov 14, 2006 3:12 pmby Caius Flavius Gallicus
Salve,
I'm interested(always have been),in the names given to the days of the week.
The opinions I read on are 2 basically:that they are dedicated to the deities,or the the planets that the ancient could observe in the sky.
As the moon and the sun are remembered in the days' names,one can assume the planet opinion is the better,but the nordic people named their days in honour of deities,with clear association with roman gods.They even kept Saturn name in Saturday!
Does anybody can help me with that?(Personally I like to associate days with the deities).
Posted:
Wed Nov 15, 2006 10:57 amby Quintus Aurelius Orcus
Salve
From what I can remember of it is the following:
monday= moon= Selene/ Luna
Tuesday= Tyr(i think)
Wednesday= Apollo (I think. I'm not sure)
Thursday= Donar/ Thor
Friday= Frigg
Saterday= Saturn
Sunday= sun= Apollo/ Hellios
They thought us this at school, but that is all what I can remember of it. The calendar itself comes from Caesar, but due to some errors in it, it was later changed so that we wouldn't lose any days or so. I don't know about the Norse or Teutonic and how they saw the planets. But the Greeks and Romans certainly had names for the planets besides the ones we know.
Quintus
Day-ities?
Posted:
Thu Nov 16, 2006 3:52 amby Aldus Marius
Salvete omnes,
There are two sets of day-names that I know of (others, of course, exist): the Romance and the Teutonic. Both are primarily based on deities, it's just a matter of which pantheon.
The English day-names belong to the Teutonic family, so honor the Norse deities; thus:
-- Monday (Moon's Day)
-- Tuesday (Tir's Day)
-- Wednesday (Woden's [Odin's or Wotan's] Day)
-- Thursday (Thor's Day)
-- Friday (Friga's Day)
...and then Saturday and Sunday get planet names. Go figure...
For the Romance contingent, which honors the Roman gods, I'll use Spanish:
-- Lunes (Moon's Day)
-- Martes (Mars' Day)
-- Miercoles (Mercury's Day)
-- Jueves (Jove's Day)
-- Viernes (Venus' Day)
-- Sabado (Sabbath, I think; in the early Church this was observed on Saturday)
-- Domingo (Lord's Day)
There are some interesting commonalities with these. Both honor Sun and Moon, especially if you consider Christ as one version of a Solar Redeemer. Both Tuesdays are named after war-gods. Thursdays bear the names of sky- or thunder-gods. Friday is a goddess. (Cubicle workers of the world rejoice!!)
The Romans themselves did not give names to particular days of the week. The Roman week was eight days long (a nundina), and its days were reckoned by their distance from one of the three monthly focal-points: the Kalends, the Nones, or the Ides. So rather than saying "I'll meet you by the fountain next Thursday", you'd tell your friend you'd see him there "nine days before the Kalends of December". (Only you'd say it in Latin...!) >({|;-)
In amicitia et fide,
Posted:
Thu Nov 16, 2006 2:47 pmby Caius Flavius Gallicus
Thanks a lot!