Father Sky

As an amateur astronomer I knew the names of the days of the week were the 7 naked eye celestial objects, (the 5 naked eye planets plus the sun and the moon), and had some vague notion that some of the names were something other than english, but that was about it.

So let’s get the record straight:

Latin                            Anglo-Saxon                   English

Dies Solis                             Sun’s day                                 Sunday

Dies Lunae                           Moon’s day                              Monday

Dies Martis                          Tiw’s day                                  Tuesday

Dies Mercurii                       Woden’s day                             Wednesday

Dies Jovis                            Thor’s day                                Thursday

Dies Veneris                        Frigg’s day                               Friday

Dies Saturni                        Seterne’s day                            Saturday

Now without too much imagination, Sunday, Monday and Saturday are pretty easy to match to their respective celestial body. But what about those 4 days in the middle? Let’s take them one by one:

Tiw’s day (Tuesday) is named after the Nordic god Tyr who was the equivalent of the Roman war god, Mars.

Woden’s day (Wednesday) is named after the Nordic god Odin (a W was added to the front with Germanic stories). Now the connection between Mercury and Odin is a bit strained but they do have common traits so are considered equivalent.

Thor’s day (Thursday) is named after the Nordic god Thor (god of thunder). Jupiter was the chief Roman god who maintained his power based on the thunderbolt.

Frigg’s day (Friday) is named after the Norse goddess Frigg, or sometimes Freyja, goddess of beauty. Venus is well knows as the Roman goddess of beauty, love and sex.

OK, now we understand the names a little better. But why are they in THAT order? Well, it’s a fun answer… which I’ll share, next time!