Somnus, the Roman counterpart of Hypnos, god of sleep.
Pagan etymology includes our calendar. Take for example the days of the week. The connections between Sunday and the sun, between Monday and the moon, and between Saturn and Saturday are the more obvious references. But what about the etymology of the other days? A lesser known fact is that every one of the seven days of the week has a name firmly rooted in Paganism. The Germanic god of war was Tiu, whose name became part of Tuesday. Wednesday is a modification of Woden’s Day, being named for the Anglo-Saxon god of the wild hunt. Norse god Thor is the basis of the name Thursday, and Friday is named for the Norse mother goddess Frigg, wife of Odin. When looking further, we can see that the names of the months also have Pagan etymology. The Roman god Janus was ruler of gateways and new beginnings, hence we celebrate the new year by honoring him through the name of January. In ancient Rome, a festival of purification and cleansing was called Februs. Since it was held at this time every year, the month was given the name February. March comes from the Roman god of war, Mars. April was derived from the Roman word for “open”, because the spring flowers did just that in this month. June is appropriately the most common month for weddings given that its name comes from Juno, goddess of marriage. The remaining months have names that stem from Latin, mostly based on numbers such as “octo”, but it is easy to see that our calendar as we know it in modern times is most certainly influenced by our Pagan past.
So we can see that our language has some Pagan influence, but what about our government? So many in our society claim that America was formed on Christian values and