The Week: Gateway to Science

So long as man marked his life only by the cycles of nature -the changing seasons, the waxing or waning moon- he remained a prisioner of nature. If he was to go his own way and fill his world with human novelties, he would have to make his own measures of time. And these man-made cycles would be wonderfully varied.

Ancient Greeks, it seems, had no week... Farmers who worked in the fields for 7 days came to town for the eighth day -the market day (or nundinae)... The number seven almost everywhere has had a special charm. The japanese found seven gods of happiness, Rome was set on seven hills, the ancients counted seven wonders of the world, and medieval Christians enumerated seven deadly sins... By the early third century A.D. Romans werw living with a 7-day week.



The days of our week remain a living witness to the early powers of astrology. We easily forget that our days of the week really are named after the "planets" as they were known in Rome two thousand years ago...

Sunday (Sun) Domingo (Sol)
Monday (Moon) Lunes (Luna)
Tuesday (Mars) Martes (Marte)
Wednesday (Mercury) Miércoles (Mercurio)
Thursday (Jupiter) Juéves (Júpiter)
Friday (Venus) Viernes (Venus)
Saturday (Saturn) Sábado (Saturno)

Transcripción del libro "The Discoverers" de Daniel J. Boorstin. Book One: Time, Part I. The Heavenly Empire