What do the days mean? ¿Qué significan los días? (Español y English)

  

Left image from Source 2, right from Source 3.

• English days of the week and their origins

Monday - day of the Moon (Old English)



Tuesday - day of Tiu (Twia), god of war and sky (Germanic)



Wednesday - day of Woden, leader of the wild hunt, a 'violently insane' man (Germanic)



Thursday - day of Thor, Norse god of thunder, wields a hammer (Germanic)





















Friday - day of Freya (Fria), Teutonic goddess of love, beauty, fecundity (Germanic).  Also same in Norse goddess Freya. (Sad: nothing to do with fish or frying them...)

Saturday - day of Saturn, god of agriculture, harvest (Roman)

Sunday - day of the Sun

• Español - Los días de la semana - ¿Qué significan?

Lunes - day of the moon.  Latin: dies lunae (Roman).

Martes - day of Mars, god of war (Roman). In Greek, Ares is god of war.  

Miércoles - day of Mercury, god of commerce, travel, theivery, eloquence, science, messenger to the gods (Roman).  Greek equivalent of Hermes.

Jueves - day of Jupiter/Jove king of the gods, creates lightning and thunder (Roman).  In Greek, Zeus (Greek)
 (Source 5)
Viernes - day of Venus - goddess of love and beauty (Roman).  Same Greek goddess: Aphrodite (Greek).

(Source 4)
Sábado - day of Saturn, god of agriculture (Roman).  Greek: Cronus.  Illustrated carrying a sickle.

Domingo - day of god. (no day of sun?)
 

• Bonus section:

Which days are associated with which planets/heavenly bodies?


Monday - the moon.
   

Tuesday - Mars.  Because both Mars (Greek: Ares) and Tiu (Twia) are gods of war.


Wednesday - Mercury.  Because Mercury (Greek: Hermes) is identified with this day.



Thursday - Jupiter.  Thor and Jupiter/Jove (Greek: Zeus) both use hammers to make lightning. 

(Source 6)  This is a really cool map of Jupiter, as if you are looking at it from the south pole, as opposed to from the sides.  It shows the different colors of its rings.  And looks like a cross-section of a geode!

(Source 7)  Another picture of Jupiter, to show how it looks from the side. Taken by the spaceship Voyager 2 apparently.


Friday - Venus.  Venus (Greek: Aphrodite) and Freya (Fria) are both goddesses of love, beauty and fecundity.

Saturday - Saturn.  Saturn (Greek: Ares) is the god of war.  Why it's not a Germanic equivalent in English:
"The Germanic peoples generally substituted roughly similar gods for the Roman gods, Tiu (Twia), Woden, Thor, Freya (Fria), but did not substitute Saturn." (Source 1) - I wonder why not?
'Saturn has 53 named satellites:'




Sunday - the sun.

(source: http://www.maniacworld.com/holding-the-sun-montage.html)

Bibliography

1. "The Seven-Day Week and the Meanings of the Names of the Days," Lawrence A. Crowl.  www.crowl.org, Copyright 1995.  URL: http://www.crowl.org/lawrence/time/days.html

(---> this article is great, especially for the English days of the week.  The Wikipedia article covers languages and cultures globally, so it's much more confusing.)

2. Website post "Steampunk Light Switch" by devin.  Website: steampunklab.com, copyright 2007.  URL: http://www.steampunklab.com/misc/Steampunk-Light-Switch/320 .

3. Art image entitled "Gears of a Clock" by Celtic-balverine.  Website: deviantart.com, copyright 2011-2012.  URL: http://celtic-balverine.deviantart.com/art/Gears-of-a-clock-199564799 .

4. "The Birth of Venus" by William-Adolphe Bougeureau.  Painted in 1879.  118 x 86 inches.  Current location: Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France.  Photographer: www.musee-orday.fr.  URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:William-Adolphe_Bouguereau_(1825-1905)_-_The_Birth_of_Venus_(1879).jpg .

5. "Bronze Sculpture of Poseidon or Zeus," unknown sculptor.  Circa 460 BCE.  Current location: National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece.  Photograph by w:es:Usario:Barcex.  URL: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivo:Athens_-_National_Archeological_Museum_-_Zeus_(or_Poseidon)_statue_-_20060930.jpg .

6. "Map of Jupiter," NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute. Copyright 2000.  URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_Jupiter.jpg

7. Website article "Voyager 2 view of Jupiter."  Photograph is a color mosaic by Bjorn Jonsson, owned by NASA/JPL (not sure I got that right).  Copyright 2012.  URL: http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/space-images/voyager-2-view-of-jupiter.html.