The account of the naming of Wednesday is rather confus, but I don’t have the strength to straighten things out. Basically, the Romans were able to incorporate large parts of Europe into the Empire without causing too much trouble by the device of equating European pagan deities with specific deities of the Roman state religion, the “interpretatio germanica” for instance, in which Tyr (a.k.a. Tiw, for example) was held to be alee-samee Mars, so the Dies Martis was called Tiw’s Day.
Now, why and how the Roman days of the week were named for planets and the deities they stood for is a story for another time.
Ida No over 3 years ago
I’m waiting for DorisDay.
AndrewSihler over 3 years ago
The account of the naming of Wednesday is rather confus, but I don’t have the strength to straighten things out. Basically, the Romans were able to incorporate large parts of Europe into the Empire without causing too much trouble by the device of equating European pagan deities with specific deities of the Roman state religion, the “interpretatio germanica” for instance, in which Tyr (a.k.a. Tiw, for example) was held to be alee-samee Mars, so the Dies Martis was called Tiw’s Day.
Now, why and how the Roman days of the week were named for planets and the deities they stood for is a story for another time.