Who: The Babylonians who lived in Mesopotamia.
How: The Babylonians worshiped the Sun, the Moon and the Stars. They believed that those stars were so special and magical that they affected destinies of men and they also believed that they can predict the future by studying those stars. To them, Mars meant war and Venus meant love.
Five planets were known to them at that time and for each of the planets they dedicated a day, with the Sun and the Moon that made 7 days. Note that Sun-day refers to the Sun, Mon-day refers to the Moon and Satur-day refers to Saturn. In French and Italian, the rest of the days still refer to the other planets.
Source: A little History of the World, by E. F. Gombrich.
So if the all of the planets were known to them, we could have ended up with an 11-day week and probably with a 3-day weekend :p
6 comments:
interesting...
that would have sucked big time!!!
11 days working and 3 days rest!!!!
8 + 3 or 7 + 4 would work :p
Hmm... I didn't know that. So where did Sabt a7ad come from? :)
I'll add it to wish list.
that's a good question but i don't know :p
the book is a bit confusing ... because it tells the history as a sequence of stories in each chapter
Nemo: Thanks for the tip. Will see if it makes it to my Kindle :)
Post a Comment