Interpretatio germanica is the practice by the

Germanic peoples The Germanic peoples were historical groups of people that once occupied Central Europe and Scandinavia during antiquity and into the early Middle Ages. Since the 19th century, they have traditionally been defined by the use of ancient and e ...

of identifying Roman gods with the names of

Germanic deities In Germanic paganism, the indigenous religion of the ancient Germanic peoples who inhabited Germanic Europe, there were a number of different gods and goddesses. Germanic deities are attested from numerous sources, including works of literat ...

. According to

Rudolf Simek Rudolf Simek (born 21 February 1954) is an Austrian philologist and religious studies scholar who is Professor and Chair of Ancient German and Nordic Studies at the University of Bonn. Simek specializes in Germanic studies, and is the author o ...

, this occurred around the 1st century AD, when both cultures came into closer contact.

Names of week days

Some evidence for ''interpretatio germanica'' exists in the Germanic translations of the Roman names for the days of the week from Roman deities into names of approximately equivalent Germanic deities: * Sunday, the day of Sunnǭ ( on, Sunna, ''Sól''; ang, Sunne; goh, Sunna), the sun (as female), was earlier the day of Sol, the sun (as male) *

Monday Monday is the day of the week between Sunday and Tuesday. According to the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 8601 standard, it is the first day of the week and in countries that adopt the "Sunday-first" convention, it is t ...

, the day of Mēnô (Máni; Mōna; Māno), the moon (as male), was earlier the day of

Luna Luna commonly refers to: * Earth's Moon, named "Luna" in Latin * Luna (goddess), the ancient Roman personification of the Moon Luna may also refer to: Places Philippines * Luna, Apayao * Luna, Isabela * Luna, La Union * Luna, San Jose Roma ...

, the moon (as female) *

Tuesday Tuesday is the day of the week between Monday and Wednesday. According to international standard ISO 8601, Monday is the first day of the week; thus, Tuesday is the second day of the week. According to some commonly used calendars, however ...

, the day of Tīwaz (Týr; Tīw; Ziu), was earlier the day of

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

, god of war *

Wednesday Wednesday is the day of the week between Tuesday and Thursday. According to international standard ISO 8601, it is the third day of the week. In countries which have Friday as their holiday, Wednesday is the fifth day of the week. In countrie ...

, the day of

Wōdanaz Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, victory ...

(Odin, Óðinn; Wōden; Wuotan), was earlier the day of Mercury, god of travelers and eloquence *

Thursday Thursday is the day of the week between Wednesday and Friday. According to the ISO 8601 international standard, it is the fourth day of the week. In countries which adopt the "Sunday-first" convention, it is the fifth day of the week. Name ''Se ...

, the day of Þūraz/Þunraz (Thor, Þórr; Þunor; Donar), The name is derived from

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

''þunresdæg'' and

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English ...

''Thuresday'' (with loss of -n-, first in northern dialects, from influence of

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

''Þórsdagr'') meaning "Thor's Day". It was named after the Norse god of Thunder,

Thor Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, an ...

. It was earlier the day of

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...

, god of thunder; the hammer-wielding Þunraz may elsewhere appear identified with the club-wielding

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the ...

Friday Friday is the day of the week between Thursday and Saturday. In countries that adopt the traditional "Sunday-first" convention, it is the sixth day of the week. In countries adopting the ISO-defined "Monday-first" convention, it is the fifth d ...

, the day of

Frijjō ''*Frijjō'' ("Frigg-Frija") is the reconstructed name or epithet of a hypothetical Common Germanic love goddess, the most prominent female member of the ''* Ansiwiz'' (gods), and often identified as the spouse of the chief god, *''Wōdanaz'' (' ...

(

Frigg Frigg (; Old Norse: ) is a goddess, one of the Æsir, in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about her, she is associated with marriage, prophecy, clairvoyance and motherhood, and dwells in the wet ...

; Frīg; Frīja), was earlier the day of

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

, goddess of love In most of the

Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...

, which derive from Latin, days of the week still preserve the names of the original Roman deities, such as the Italian for Tuesday, ''martedì'' (from the Latin ''Martis dies''). The exception to the use of Germanic gods is Saturday, which retains the name of the foreign god, possibly because there was no obvious Germanic substitute. The name of the day after Saturn occurs in many

West Germanic languages The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages). The West Germanic branch is classically subdivided into ...

; such as the English "Saturday", the West Frisian '' Saterdei'', the Low German '' Saterdag'', and the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

'' zaterdag'' all meaning Saturn's day.

Dissenting view

Simek emphasizes the paucity of evidence for a widespread ''interpretatio germanica'', as opposed to the well-attested opposite ''

interpretatio romana ''Interpretatio graeca'' (Latin, "Greek translation") or "interpretation by means of Greek odels is a discourse used to interpret or attempt to understand the mythology and religion of other cultures; a comparative methodology using ancient Gr ...

'', and notes that comparison with Roman gods is insufficient to reconstruct ancient Germanic gods, or equate them definitively with those of later Norse mythology.

References

{{reflist, 22em Germanic mythology Religious interpretation

Names of week days

Dissenting view

See also

References