Ruminations on Woden's Day

As you may have read in our last post, we are inducing Emily's labor tomorrow morning. This got me thinking about the Mother Goose rhyme, which sadly calls Wednesday's child "full of woe". Not exactly propitious. So I've looked about for some more positive meaning behind "Wednesday".

For starters, our word "Wednesday" means Woden's Day, the Saxon god known as Wotan by the Germans and Odin by the Norse. Those familiar with Wagner's rendition of Germanic mythology, the Ring Cycle, know this god as the one-eyed, spear-carrying wanderer doomed to die in the twilight of the gods. While Wotan can be a sympathetic character (certainly my favorite in the Ring, much more so than his protagonist grandson, the lunk-headed Siegfried), his is not exactly a cheerful visage to apply to an adorable baby girl. For one thing, he killed one son, and then condemned his favorite daughter by surrounding her in a ring of flame...

Our friends the Romans had an interesting take on Wotan, one that has lingered in the Romance Languages. They had a habit of taking any "barbarian" deity and applying a Roman template to him, a practice called interpretatio romana. This certainly cut down on religious disagreement. For instance, in interacting with the Germans, they considered Wotan simply another name for Mercury. That way, they could acknowledge the German worship of Wotan without it causing conflict with their own beliefs.

Because of this, Wednesday is known as mercredi to the French and mercoledi to the Italians. Mercury, analogue to the Greek Hermes, is the messenger god, a trickster, patron of merchants and thieves. Upon winged feet he carries the word of the gods on high.

While Mercury is not as fatalistic a character as Woden, he's still not the bold huntress Diane or the caring giver Ceres, either. He's a bit dangerous and unpredictable.

Going further afield, another God the Romans considered cognomen with Mercury was the Celtic Lugus. He's an interesting figure whose original traits were largely lost to history, swallowed by the Roman conquest, but he seems to have been a patron to the arts and artists, trade and travel, a figure of strength and success. That all sounds promising for Mather's future. His legacy remains in some place names -- Lyon in France, Lugdunum in Wales -- and in the character of the Archangel Michael, who gained many of Mercury/Lugus's temples in the Roman conversion to Catholicism.

Of course, we also have the date to consider. November 1st is many things to many people; dia de los muertos, All Saints Day, Samhain. November 1, 1960 was the day candidate JFK proposed the Peace Corps; it is the birthday of such dubious luminaries as smut-king Larry Flynt, crooner Lyle Lovett, Chili Pepper Anthony Kiedis, and Jenny McCarthy. Hmm.

Of course, there is an equal chance Mather will be born Thursday. Should I start ruminating on Thor?