♂ יום סמאל

♂ יום סמאל — The Day of Mars

Tuesday is the first day of the Gregorian week whose name is openly and unambiguously pagan in the Germanic languages. In the planetary week inherited from Babylon, Tuesday was the day of Mars — the red wandering star associated with war, blood, fire, and decisive action.

Nergal — Lord of the Underworld

In Babylon, the planet Mars was identified with Nergal, a god of death, plague, war, and the fierce heat of the summer sun. He was lord of the underworld city of Kutha and consort of Ereshkigal, queen of the dead. Nergal was not simply a war god — he embodied the destructive aspect of solar heat, the wasting fevers of disease, and the inevitable violence that takes life. He was both feared and propitiated: prayed to against plague, and honored for the ruthlessness that brought decisive victory. The red color of Mars in the night sky made the association natural — blood-red, the color of violence and fire.

Ares and Mars

In ancient Greece, the planet Mars was the day of Ares — one of the twelve Olympians, but the most disreputable among them. Ares was not the noble warrior; he was the raw violence of battle, the bloodlust that overtook soldiers in the chaos of close combat. The Greeks had limited affection for him: in the Iliad, Zeus calls him the most hateful of all gods. Ares sided with Troy during the war and was wounded twice — once by the hero Diomedes, aided by Athena, and once by Athena herself striking him with a boulder. He was routinely outwitted and humiliated. Even his famous affair with Aphrodite ended in public disgrace when her husband Hephaestus trapped the two lovers in an invisible net and displayed them to the laughing gods of Olympus.

Yet Ares was not without importance. He was the father of Phobos (Fear) and Deimos (Dread), who accompanied him into battle. He was patron of Thrace — a region the Greeks associated with fierce, uncivilized warriors — and had a significant cult at Sparta. He embodied something real and necessary: the willingness to kill and die in combat, without which no city could defend itself. The Greeks simply didn't celebrate that willingness the way they celebrated the craft of Athena or the law of Zeus.

In Rome, the same deity was transformed almost beyond recognition. Mars was one of the three most important gods in the Roman state religion, alongside Jupiter and Quirinus. He was the father of Romulus and Remus — the divine ancestor of Rome itself. The month of March (Martius) was named for him and was the original first month of the Roman calendar, when the campaigning season began. His sacred animals were the wolf and the woodpecker; the she-wolf who suckled Romulus and Remus was under his protection. The Salii, a college of twelve dancing priests, performed elaborate armed dances through the streets of Rome each March in his honor. The Campus Martius — the Field of Mars — was the training ground for the Roman legions and later the heart of public life in the city.

The contrast between the Greek Ares and the Roman Mars illustrates a broader difference in how the two cultures related to warfare. For the Greeks, war was a necessary evil, and its patron deity was accordingly unsympathetic. For the Romans, war was the activity through which civilization was built and maintained, and its patron was honored as a founder and father. Tuesday inherits both of these layers.

Tiw — The One-Handed God

When the Germanic peoples adapted the planetary week, they translated each planet's deity into their own pantheon. For Mars, they chose Tiw (Old English), Tīwaz (Proto-Germanic), or Tyr (Norse). Tiw was the god of war and law — not the chaos of Nergal or Ares, but the binding oaths that gave war its legitimacy. The most famous myth of Tyr is the binding of Fenrir: when the gods needed to restrain the great wolf Fenrir with a magical fetter, the wolf demanded that a god place a hand in his mouth as a pledge of good faith. Only Tyr agreed. When the fetter held and Fenrir could not break free, he bit off Tyr's hand. Tyr lost his hand but kept his oath — sacrificing himself for the cosmic order. Tuesday is the day named for this god of sacrifice and justice.

The German Dienstag (assembly day) preserves a different aspect: Tuesday was a traditional day for legal assemblies and courts in Germanic culture. The Thing — the ancient Norse and Germanic assembly for law and dispute resolution — was associated with this day.

Fire, Action, and the Quality of Tuesday

In the East Asian planetary week, Tuesday is the day of fire (火曜, kayōbi in Japanese). This corresponds well to the martial nature of Mars: fire is the element of transformation, urgency, decisive energy. In Hindu astrology, Tuesday belongs to Maṅgala, the Mars planet — considered auspicious for beginnings that require courage and force. Many Hindu temples are particularly associated with Tuesday worship.

Across cultures, Tuesday carries a quality of action after Monday's restart. If Monday is the return to ordinary time, Tuesday is when the work properly begins — the forward push, the day of doing.

Names Across Languages

Language	Name	Romanized	Meaning
Akkadian	ūmu Nergal	—	Day of Nergal (Mars)
Greek	hēméra Áreos	—	Day of Ares
Latin	dies Martis	—	Day of Mars
English	Tuesday	—	Tiw's day
German	Dienstag	—	Assembly day
French	mardi	—	From Mars
Spanish	martes	—	From Mars
Sanskrit	Maṅgalavāra	—	Day of Maṅgala (Mars)
Hindi	मंगलवार	Maṅgalvār	Day of Maṅgala (Mars)
Japanese	火曜日	Kayōbi	Fire day
Korean	화요일	Hwayoil	Fire day
Chinese	火曜	Huǒ yào	Fire day
Hebrew	יום סמאל	Yom Samael	Day of Samael
Arabic	يوم سمائيل	Yawm Samāʾīl	Day of Samael
Russian	Ярови́тник	Yarovitnik	Day of Yarilo
Ukrainian	Ярови́тник	Yarovitnik	Day of Yarilo