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northern nations[1]. However that be, there remains to this-day some traces, of the worship paid to Odin in the name given by almost all the people of the north to the fourth day of the week, which was formerly consecrated to him. It is called by a name which signifies Odin’s day[2]: For as this God was reputed also the author of magic, and inventor of all the arts, he was thought to answer to the Mercury of the Greeks and Romans, and the name of the day consecrated to him was expressed in Latin Dies Mercurii[3].
The principal Deity among the ancient Danes, after Odin, was Frigga or Frea his wife. It was the opinion of all the Celtic nations, of the ancient Syrians, and of the first inhabitants of Greece, that the supreme Being or celestial God had united
- ↑ ‘Several learned men have proved very clearly that the word Hercules, was a name given to all the leaders of Colonies, who came out of Asia to settle in Greece, Italy and Spain. May not one conjecture with some probability, that the name of Odin was given in like manner to all the leaders of Scythian colonies, who came from Asia to form settlements in the north?’
- ↑ It is called in Icelandic Wonsdag, in Swedish Odinsdag, in Low Dutch Woensdag, in Anglo-Saxon Wodensdag, in English Wednesday, that is, the day of Woden or Odin. Vide Junii Etymologicon Anglicanum. Fol. 1748.
- ↑ In French Mecredi.
