"7 DAYS FOR 7 GODS"
SUNDAY: Sunday: Old English Sunnandæg (pronounced [ˈsunnɑndæj]), meaning "sun's day." This is a translation of the Latin phrase dies Solis. English, like most of the Germanic languages, preserves the original pagan/sun associations of the day. Many other European languages, including all of the Romance languages, have changed its name to the equivalent of "the Lord's day" (based on Ecclesiastical Latin dies Dominica). In both West Germanic and North Germanic mythology the Sun is personified as Sunna/Sól (description below).
MONDAY: Old English Mōnandæg (pronounced [ˈmoːnɑndæj]), meaning "Moon's day",derived from the interpretation of Latin lunae dies ("day of the moon"). In North Germanic mythology, the Moon is personified as Máni.
Mani and
SolSol(or Sunna,goddess of Sun) and Mani form a brother and sister pair. When they first emerged as the cosmos was being created, they didn’t know what their powers were or what their role was in the new world. Then the gods met together and created the different parts of the day and year and the phases of the moon so that Sol and Mani would know where they fit into the great scheme of things.
They ride through the sky on horse-drawn chariots. The horses who pull Mani’s chariot are never named, but Sol’s horses are apparently named Árvakr (“Early Riser”) and Alsviðr(“Swift”). They ride “swiftly” because they’re pursued through the sky by the wolves Skoll (“Mockery”) and Hati (“Hate”), who overtake them when the cosmos descends back into chaos during Ragnarok.
TUESDAY: Old English Tīwesdæg (pronounced [ˈtiːwezdæj]), meaning "Tiw's day." Tiw (Norse Týr) was a one-handed god associated with single combat and pledges in Norse mythology and also attested prominently in wider Germanic paganism. The name of the day is based on Latin dies Martis, "Day of Mars".
Tyr, god of warfare and valorThe son of Odin and Frigg, Tyr was the war god, renowned for strength and valor. Like Odin, he received sacrifices of hanged men. His story is bound to that of Fenrir, the wolf-son of Loki. Tyr was assigned the difficult task of feeding Fenrir, but Odin perceived that Fenrir was growing ever more powerful and dangerous. The gods chose to bind Fenrir underground, where he could do no harm. To convince him that a magic chain around his neck was harmless, Tyr had to place his right hand in the wolf’s mouth. When Fenrir realized the chain was unbreakable, he bit off Tyr’s hand. The loss of his hand reduced Tyr in the eyes of the other gods, who laughed at his pain. He was destined to fight the great hound Garm, watchdog at the gates of Hel, during Ragnarok. In this final confrontation, Garm was to leap at Tyr’s throat and both would die in the struggle. The god Tyr was petitioned before battle and his rune was engraved on swords. Tyr may have been the chief god in early Norse pantheons, but his importance diminished as worship of Odin increased. The Anglo-Saxons called him Tiw and gave his name to the third day of their week, Tuesday.
WEDNESDAY: Old English Wōdnesdæg (pronounced [ˈwoːdnezdæj]) meaning the day of the Germanic god Woden (known as Óðinn among the North Germanic peoples), and a prominent god of the Anglo-Saxons (and other Germanic peoples) in England until about the seventh century. It is based on Latin dies Mercurii, "Day of Mercury." The connection between Mercury and Odin is more strained than the other syncretic connections. The usual explanation is that both Wodan and Mercury were considered psychopomps, or guides of souls after death, in their respective mythologies; both are also associated with poetic and musical inspiration.
Odin chieftain of the godsThe oldest and chief of the Norse gods, Odin had risen to prominence in the pantheon because of his love of battle. This made him popular with the Vikings when they began raiding out of Scandinavia. To his great fortress hall Valhalla he gathered those slain in battle. Called the einherjar (glorious dead), these warriors were preserved by Odin to supplement the gods in their final battle against the giants at Ragnarok.
Odin was not a warrior himself, but inspired warriors into going berserk in battle, feeling and fearing nothing. Sacrificial hangings were part of the worship of Odin, and suicide by hanging was thought to be a shortcut to Valhalla. Odin was held in high regard by jarls and other Norse nobility, while the common people feared Odin and worshipped Thor. Odin was also the god of wisdom. He had thrown one of his eyes into Mimir’s well in trade for a drink of wisdom. He hung himself from the cosmic tree, Yggdrasil, to learn the knowledge of the dead, and then was revived by magic. He was kept informed about events elsewhere by his two ravens that scouted the world and reported back. Odin was to be killed during Ragnarok by Fenrir, the wolf spawned by Loki. Worship of Odin diminished as the Vikings gave up raiding for more peaceful pursuits. The Anglo-Saxons gave his name (Woden) to the fourth day of their week, Wednesday.
THURSDAY: Old English Þūnresdæg (pronounced [ˈθuːnrezdæj]), meaning 'Þunor's day'. Þunor means thunder or its personification, the Norse god known in Modern English as Thor. Similarly Dutch donderdag, German Donnerstag ('thunder's day'), Finnish torstai, and Scandinavian Torsdag ('Thor's day'). Thor's day corresponds to Latin dies Iovis, "day of Jupiter".
Thor, god of thunderThe thunder god, Thor was the son of Odin and Fjorgyn, the goddess of earth. He was large for a god, immensely strong, and a big eater (a cow could be a single meal). He loved contests of strength and was the main champion of the gods against their enemies, the frost giants. Farmers who appreciated his simple honesty and revulsion of evil worshiped him, rather than Odin, who was more attractive to those with the raiding spirit. Thor’s weapon was a magic war hammer (bolts of lightning) with a huge head and short handle that never missed its target. He wore magic iron gauntlets to handle the white-hot hammer shaft and a belt that doubled his strength.
Thor enjoyed the company of Loki despite the trickster’s penchant for getting them both in trouble. The tales of their adventures are some of the richest in Norse mythology. In the Norse pantheon, Thor was the destroyer of evil. At Ragnarok, Thor was aligned against his friend Loki who had gone over to the side of the evil frost giants. Thor was destined to kill the grim serpent Jormungand, spawn of Loki, but die in the struggle. Anglo-Saxons gave Thor’s name to the fifth day of their week, Thursday.
FRIDAY: Old English Frīgedæg (pronounced [ˈfriːjedæj]), meaning the day of the Anglo-Saxon goddess Fríge. The Norse name for the planet Venus was Friggjarstjarna, 'Frigg's star'. It is based on the Latin dies Veneris, "Day of Venus."
Frigg, goddess of love, beauty and abundant harvests Frigg (pronounced “FRIG;” Old Norse Frigg, “Beloved”), sometimes Anglicized as “Frigga,” is the highest-ranking of the Aesir goddesses. She’s the wife of Odin, the chief of the gods, and the mother of Baldur.
Strangely for a goddess of her high position, the surviving primary sources on Norse mythology give only sparse and casual accounts of anything related to her personality, deeds, or other attributes. The specifics they do discuss, however, are not unique to Frigg, but are instead shared by both her and Freya, a goddess who belongs to both the Aesir and the Vanir tribes of deities. From these similarities, combined with the two goddesses’ mutual evolution from the earlier Germanic goddess Frija, we can see that Frigg and Freya were only nominally distinct figures by the late Viking Age, when our sources were recorded, and that these two figures, who had formerly been the same deity, were still practically the same personage in everything but name.
SATURDAY : the only day of the week to retain its Roman origin in English, named after the Roman god Saturn associated with the Titan Cronus, father of Zeus and many Olympians. Its original Anglo-Saxon rendering was Sæturnesdæg (pronounced [ˈsæturnezdæj]). In Latin it was dies Saturni, "Day of Saturn." The Scandinavian Lørdag/Lördag deviates significantly as it has no reference to either the Norse or the Roman pantheon; it derives from old Norse laugardagr, literally "washing-day." The German Sonnabend (mainly used in northern and eastern Germany) and the Low German words Sünnavend mean "Sunday Eve", the German word Samstag (mainly used in southern and western Germany) derives from the name for Shabbat.
Saturn, god of agricultureJust like Cronus in Greek mythology, Saturn was the son of the supreme sky god (Caelus, equivalent to the Greek Uranus) and the earth mother (Tellus; Greek Gaia). Caelus's reign was marked by tyranny, and so Saturn overthrew him, thereby supplanting him as the supreme deity. However, it was foretold that one day a mighty son of Saturn would in turn overthrow him, and in order to prevent this from occurring, Saturn devoured all of his children by his wife Ops, a goddess of fertility and the earth (equivalent to the Greek Rhea), as soon as they were born. Among these children were Ceres (goddess of plants), Veritas (goddess of truth), Vesta (goddess of the hearth and home), Pluto (god of the underworld), Neptune (god of the waters), and Juno (eventual queen of the gods). For fear of losing a sixth child, Ops hid Jupiter and offered Saturn a large stone wrapped in swaddling clothes in his place. Saturn promptly swallowed the stone, and in the process of ridding it from his digestive system was forced to disgorge each of his children as well. Jupiter later returned to overthrow Saturn, becoming the new supreme ruler of the cosmos. Defeated, Saturn fled away from Jupiter to Latium, where he was taken in by the god Janus. Here Saturn introduced agriculture and ushered in a mythological period of great peace and contentment called the Golden Age, over which he ruled. During this time, all human beings were said to be equal, with no social distinctions made between classes. The notion that he ruled over the Golden Age after his usurpation as king of the gods is a uniquely Roman extrapolation upon the Greek myth.
In congruence with the new agricultural techniques that Saturn taught the people of Latium, he was construed as a harvest deity, overseeing grain, agriculture and nature in general. Fittingly, his symbol was the sickle, which he carried in many depictions. His association with the Golden Age lead him to become linked with the progression of time as it related to humans. This gave him special jurisdiction over calendars and the seasons, as well as significant events over the course of a year, most notably the harvest.