THE PLANETS 97 



manuscripts of Greek astronomers ; of Ptolemy, of Theon, or 

 3f Cleomedes. The earliest planetary signs, some of which 



cisely that which Julius Firmicus Maternus (ii., 4) describes as "sig- 

 norum decani eorumque domini." If those planets are separated which 

 in each of the signs are the fii'st of the three, the succession of the plan- 

 etary days in the week is obtained (Virgo: Sun, Venus, Mercury; 

 Libra: Moon, Saturn, Jupiter; Scorpio: Mars, Sun, Venus ; Sagittarius: 



Mercury which may here serve as an example for the first four 



days of the week : Dies Soils, Lnn^, Mariis, Mercurii). As, according 

 to Diodorus, among the Chaldeans, the number of the planets (star- 

 like) originally amounted only to five, and not seven, all the here-men- 

 tioned combinations in which more than five planets form periodical 

 series appear to be not of old Chaldean origin, but much rather to date 

 from a subsequent astrological period. (Letronne, Sur VOrigine du 

 Zodiaqite Grec, 1840, p. 29.) 



With respect to the concordance of the arrangement of the plancta 

 as days of the week with their arrangement and distribution among 

 the decans in the zodiacal circle of Bianchini, a brief explanation will, 

 perhaps, be acceptable to some readers. If a letter is assigned to each 

 eosmical body in the order of succession adopted in antiquity (Saturn 

 a, Jupiter b, Mars c, Sun d, Venus e, Mercuxy /, Moon g), and with 

 these seven members the following periodical series are formed— 



ah cdefg, abed.... 



there is obtained, 1st, by passing over two members of the distribution 

 among the decans, each of which comprises three planets (the zodiacal 

 sign of the first one giving, in each case, its name to the week-day), the 

 new periodical series 



adgefbe,adgc,... 



that is, Dies Saturm, Soils, Lunm, Martis, and so on; 2dly, the same 

 new series, 



a d g c . . . . 



obtained by the method of Dio Cassius, according to which the sue 

 cessive week-days take their names from the planet which rules the 

 first hour of the day, so that alternately a member of the periodical 

 seven-membered planet-series is to be taken, and twenty-three mem- 

 bers to be passed over. Now it is immaterial, in the case of a period- 

 ical series, whether it is a certain number of members which is passed 

 over, or whether it is this number increased by any multiple of the 

 number of members (in this case seven) of the period. By passing 

 over twenty-three (=3.7-}-2) members, according to the second meth- 

 od, that of the planetary hours, the same result is obtained as when the 

 first method, that of the decans, is adopted, in which only two members 

 are to be passed over. 



Attention has aheady been directed (page 92, note t) to the remark- 

 able resemblance between the fourth day of the week, dies Mercurii, 

 of the Indian Budha-v^ra, and the old Saxon Wodanes-dag. (Jacob 

 Grimm, Deutsche Mythologle, 1844, bd. i., p. 844.) The identity af- 

 firmed by William Jones to exist between the founder of the Buddhist 

 religion and the race of Odin or Wuotan, and Wotan, famous in North- 

 ern heroic tales, as well as in the history of Northern civilization, will, 

 perhaps, gain more interest when it is called to mind that the name of 

 Wotan is met with in a part of the new continent as belonging to a half- 

 mythical, ha f-historical personage concerning whom I ha> e collected 



Vol.. TV _E 



