Chapter X. October The Eighth Month : CHAPTER X OCTOBER--THE EIGHTH MONTH In this, the "eighth" month, was held a great festival at Eleusis, a town twelve miles from Athens, in honour of the Greek goddess Demeter. The Roman name for Demeter was Ceres, and she was worshiped as the Goddess of Agriculture, since the fields and their crops...
Chapter Viii. August The Month Of Augustus : CHAPTER VIII AUGUST--THE MONTH OF AUGUSTUS This month is also named after a great Roman emperor, Augustus Caesar, but was first called Sextilis, the sixth month. Augustus, whose full name was Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus--Augustus (the Majestic) being a title given him after he became...
Chapter Xx. Saturday The Day Of Saturn : CHAPTER XX SATURDAY--THE DAY OF SATURN In the Roman calendar, Saturday was called Dies Saturni in honour of the god Saturn, whom we have already mentioned. He was the father of Jupiter, who finally overthrew him. He then made his way to the earth, and reigned over a kingdom in Italy called Latium...
Chapter Vii. July The Month Of Julius Caesar : CHAPTER VII JULY--THE MONTH OF JULIUS CAESAR This month was first called Quintilis, that is, the fifth month, which shows that the year began with March. In the year 44 B.C. the name was changed to Julius in honour of Julius Caesar, the founder of the Roman Empire. The month Quintilis was chosen...
Chapter V. May The Month Of Maia : CHAPTER V MAY--THE MONTH OF MAIA This month is named after the goddess Maia, to whom the Romans sacrificed on the first day of the month. Maia was one of the Pleiades, the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione. They were all transformed into pigeons that they might escape from the great hunter Ori...
Introduction : THE STORIES OF THE MONTHS AND DAYS INTRODUCTION Our Divisions of Time How familiar to us are the names of the months, and the days of the week, and yet how few of us know to whom we owe these names or what a wealth of meaning they possess. They have come to us from the past, from the time when...
Title Page : THE STORIES OF THE MONTHS AND DAYS BY REGINALD C. COUZENS New York, Frederick A. Stokes Co. [1923, Copyright Not Renewed] Scanned At Sacredspiral.com, May 2004, By Eliza Fegley. Additional HTML Formatting , By John Bruno Hare. This Text Is In The Public Domain In The United States Because It W...
Chapter Xv. Monday The Day Of The Moon : CHAPTER XV MONDAY--THE DAY OF THE MOON The moon, like the sun, was an object of wonder in the days of old, and was worshiped almost everywhere in some form or other, but it does not play quite so important a part in story as the sun. Since the moon is paler than the sun and its light soft...
Chapter Xiii. Stories Of The Days : CHAPTER XIII STORIES OF THE DAYS The days of the week are as full of story as the months, but they take us away from the sunlit countries of Greece and Rome to the cold and stormy lands of the Northmen. They are really of greater interest to us, because four of these days are named after gods...
Chapter Xvii. Wednesday The Day Of Woden : CHAPTER XVII WEDNESDAY--THE DAY OF WODEN Woden, or Odin as the Norsemen called him, was the chief of the gods of our ancestors, and corresponds to the Jupiter of the Romans. Also, for reasons which we shall read later, he was similar to Mercury, and his name was given to the Roman Dies Mercurii...
Chapter I. January The Month Of Janus : CHAPTER I JANUARY--THE MONTH OF JANUS The first month was called Januarius by the Romans, after Janus, the god of doors and gates. We see the same word in janua, the Latin for a gate or opening. From the idea that a door is a way in, an entrance, it became a custom among the Romans to pray to Janus...
Chapter Xii. December The Tenth Month : CHAPTER XII DECEMBER--THE TENTH MONTH The chief festival of this "tenth" and last month of the Roman year was the Saturnalia, held on the seventeenth of the month in honour of Saturn, the father of Jupiter. Saturn, or Cronos, as the Greeks called him, was one of the Titans, the six giant sons...
Chapter Xvi. Tuesday The Day Of Tiu : CHAPTER XVI TUESDAY--THE DAY OF TIU Tuesday is the first day of the week which is named after a god of the Angles and Saxons--Tiu, the God of War. The Angles and Saxons, like the Greeks and Romans, worshiped many gods, and though these gods were in a great number of ways similar to those...
Chapter Ix. September The Seventh Month : CHAPTER IX SEPTEMBER--THE SEVENTH MONTH The name of this month means simply "seventh", and so suggests to us neither god nor hero. We find, however, that there were several festivals held in the month, and not the least important of these was one held on the second of the month, and known...
Chapter Xix. Friday The Day Of Freya : CHAPTER XIX FRIDAY--THE DAY OF FREYA In the stories of the gods and goddesses of the Angles and Saxons we find two goddesses, Frigga, the wife of Odin and queen of the gods, and Freya, the Goddess of Love. Some people think that Friday was named after Frigga, and others that it was Freya's day...
Chapter Vi. June The Month Of Juno : CHAPTER VI JUNE--THE MONTH OF JUNO The month of June is probably named after Juno, the wife of Jupiter, and queen of the gods. It was held sacred to her, and was thought by the Romans to be the luckiest month for marriage, since Juno was the Goddess of Marriage. Wherever the goddess went she w...
Chapter Xi. November The Ninth Month : CHAPTER XI NOVEMBER--THE NINTH MONTH On the thirteenth of this "ninth" month the Romans held a feast in honour of Jupiter, the ruler of gods and men. From the clouded top of Mount Olympus he held sway over the whole world, and even the gods had to bow to his supreme will. Terrible indeed was it...
Chapter Xxi. The Meaning Of The Ancient Myths : CHAPTER XXI THE MEANING OF THE ANCIENT MYTHS It is perhaps difficult for us to realize that the wonderful gods and goddesses of whom we have been reading were once very real to the people who invented them, but the fact that they are commemorated for all time in the names of our months and days...
Chapter Xviii. Thursday The Day Of Thor : CHAPTER XVIII THURSDAY--THE DAY OF THOR Thor, the Thunderer, is perhaps the most famous of the gods of the Northmen, and was considered by some to be greater even than Odin. He was the God of the Peasants--the poor people, while Odin was thought more of by the rich people and the great fighters...
Untitled : THE STORIES OF THE MONTHS AND DAYS BY REGINALD C. COUZENS [1923, Copyright Not Renewed] Title Page Contents Introduction Chapter I. January--The Month of Janus Chapter II. February--The Month of Purification Chapter III. March--The Month of Mars Chapter IV. April--The Month of Venus Chapter V...
Chapter Iv. April The Month Of Venus : CHAPTER IV APRIL--THE MONTH OF VENUS This month of April has only thirty days, which is the number said to have been given to it by Romulus. The king who came after him gave it only twenty-nine, but Caesar, when he altered the calendar, gave it thirty again. The name April comes from the Latin word...
Chapter Iii. March The Month Of Mars : CHAPTER III MARCH--THE MONTH OF MARS This month, originally the first in the year, is named after Mars, the God of War. He was the son of Jupiter and Juno, the king and queen of the gods, and was generally represented in a shining suit of armour, with a plumed helmet on his head, a spear in one...
Chapter Xxii. Notes On Certain Days : CHAPTER XXII NOTES ON CERTAIN DAYS Sabbath Day.--The word sabbath comes from a Hebrew word meaning "to cease from labour" and the Sabbath Day, as we know from the Bible, was the seventh day of the week and a day of rest. It is owing to this custom of the Jews that our Sunday is a holiday. The word...
Chapter Xiv. Sunday The Day Of The Sun : CHAPTER XIV SUNDAY--THE DAY OF THE SUN Among all peoples in early times the sun was an object of wonder. It was to them a mystery, but although they could never understand it, they imagined many explanations of it. When we remember that in those long-ago days nothing was known of the rotati...
Chapter Ii. February The Month Of Purification : CHAPTER II FEBRUARY--THE MONTH OF PURIFICATION This month did not always hold its present position, but was originally the last month in the year. The name is taken from a Latin word, februare, meaning "to make pure". In the Palatine Hill, another of the seven hills of Rome, was a cave dug...