planets and days

[Lionel Mandrake]

It's fairly obvious that Saturn goes with Saturday, the sun goes with Sunday, and the moon goes with Monday.

But what planets correspond to the other days of the week?

[MorningGlow]

1. Is this a takeoff on Rebecca Black's song? :)

J/K

Answers:

Tuesday = god Tiw
Wednesday = god Woden
Thursday = god Thor
Friday = goddess Frigga

:hi:

[Lionel Mandrake]

3. I am not familiar with Rebecca Black or her song, but

you are right about the Norse gods corresponding to Tuesday through Friday.

So ... which planets (or Roman gods) correspond to those Norse gods?

[MorningGlow]

4. Count yourself lucky on that one, friend

I won't subject you to the YouTube "sensation", but I'm sure some of our other Loungers would be more than happy to oblige.

Tuesday is Mars, Wednesday is Mercury, Thursday is Jupiter, and Friday is Venus.

Sorry--I don't do Roman gods. Too latterday/copycat/derivative. :evilgrin:

[Lionel Mandrake]

8. You don't do Roman gods?

Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus ARE Roman gods (as well as planets).

Jupiter < Iuppiter (nom.) < Zeo Pater (Father Zeus) is arguably Greek. His truly Roman name is Jove < Iovis, -i, -em, -e (gen., dat., acc., abl.). Hence the English words "jovial" and "jovian".

The corresponding days in French are Mardi, Mercredi, Jeudi, and Vendredi (days of Mars, Mercury, Jove, and Venus).

I imagine the Romans absorbed the Greek pantheon and copied Greek astrology when Greece became part of the Roman Empire, but I'm not sure about this.

Similar identifications of Roman gods with Norse gods were made later. These identifications include some surprises. You would expect the chief Roman god (Jupiter) to be identified with the chief Norse god (Woden), but that is not what happened. Instead, Jupiter was identified with a relatively minor Norse god (Thor), possibly because Thor's hammer was compared with Zeus's lightning bolt. (The German word for Thursday is Donnerstag = day of thunder.)

[MorningGlow]

13. I know

Thing is, I've always been bombarded by Roman, Roman, Roman, when they co-opted the Greek gods. And the Roman/Greek pantheon always trumps the Celtic and Norse gods. I want equal time! :)

I must've been a Celt in a former life; I resent the Roman dominance. :P

[Iggo]

2. Wednesday is Odin's day (Woden).

Thursday is Thor's Day.

Friday might be Frey's day, for all I know.

[Zephie]

5. This is convoluted but....

The planet/day assignments can be traced back to the Babylonians and Sumerians, however many of the name correlations are now hard to connect because the names no longer make complete sense due to thousands of years of translations. The Latin names of planets we go by now are translations of Greek, which are translations of Babylonian, which were translation of Sumerian.

That out of the way:

Monday is ruled by the Moon. Tuesday is ruled by Mars. Wednesday is ruled by Mercury. Thursday is ruled by Jupiter. Friday is ruled by Venus. Saturday is ruled by Saturn. Sunday is ruled by the Sun.

Interesting in-depth read on the subject: http://www.friesian.com/week.htm

[Lionel Mandrake]

9. Thanks for the scholarly link.

That IS interesting, especially the part about the order of the planets implied by the order of the days of the week:

"The curious thing about the Latin names, clearly using the planets, is that the ancient order of the planets, rising from the Earth to the Fixed Stars, can be read off by starting with Monday and jumping every other day for two weeks: Monday (Moon), Wednesday (Mercury), Friday (Venus), Sunday (Sun), Tuesday (Mars), Thursday (Jupiter), and Saturday (Saturn)."

The web page goes on to cite the Oxford Companion to the Year, according to which

"the formulation of the planetary week goes back to Ptolemaic Egypt ".

Thus the orders of the days and of the planets are too recent to have anything to do with Sumer or Babylon.

[Zephie]

11. I'm not too big to admit that a large part of the page made my head spin

But I'm glad that at least it helped you find what you're looking for. :)

[pokerfan]

6. gods and goddesses

Tuesday: Týr (Norse god)

Wednesday: Wodan (Germanic god)

Thursday: Thor (Germanic god)

Friday: Fríge (Anglo-Saxon goddess)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Week-day_names

[Lionel Mandrake]

10. Thanks for the link.

The quality of Wikipedia articles is uneven; this is one of the better ones.

[struggle4progress]

7. Friday is named after

Fry The Planet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdTI-mCd4bI

[Lionel Mandrake]

12. Heh heh.

That's wicked!

:evilgrin:

[frogmarch]

14. LOL

You are good. That was so clever!

[HopeHoops]

15. Wednesday is HUMP DAY!!!!