Re: Why not 13 months? (Was La Systeme Metrique)

Jonathan Badger (badger@phylo.life.uiuc.edu)
15 Oct 95 22:12:56 GMT

pbm1001@cam.ac.uk (Paul Menage) writes:

>In article <45mcr3$g89@perl.eng.umd.edu>,
>coolhand@Glue.umd.edu (Kevin Anthony Scaldeferri) writes:

>>>
>>>Wednesday comes from Wotan, not a planet.
>>>
>>
>>Wednesday comes from Odin. In French it's Mercredi(sp?), ie Mercury

>Aren't Wotan and Odin (and Wodin) all the same ?

Well, similar anyway, in the same sense that Jupiter is basically the
Greek god Zeus with a Roman name. The German main god was quite like
the Scandinavian god Odin but named Wotan.

Germanic/Scandianavian gods are used for a lot of day names, at least in
English.

Wednesday is indeed Wotan's Day
Thursday is Thor's Day
Friday is Frey's Day

Tuesday is Tiw's Day, but I forget if Tiw is from the same pantheon or not.