the Temple of the Seven Transmitters of Commands from Heaven to Earth

'The Babylonians surpassed all other peoples of antiquity in the patience, precision, and impartiality of their [astronomical] observations. . . .

[They] placed their native divinities one after another in the heavens, and transferred the mythic traits of these divinites to the stars. . . .

The cuneiform script itself expressed that impulse, for its sign of divinity was a star. An age-old Babylonian legend related that the lord of the Earth, Bel, appointed the three gods Shamash, Sin, and Ishtar guardians of the firmament, which they thereafter patrolled as the Sun, the Moon, and Venus. When four more wandering stars were found in the firmament, the Babylonians made bold to repeat the act of Bel. The city-god of Babylon, Marduk, became the planet Jupiter; the god of death, Nergal, became the planet Mars; the god of war, Ninurta, became Saturn; and the god of knowledge, Nabu, became Mercury. Mars was called Star of Judgement upon the Dead. The Tower of Babel, which was simultaneously a sanctuary and observatory, was called tersely the Temple of the Seven Transmitters of Commands from Heaven to Earth. . . .

Originally the week [of the Middle Ages] had five days because five divided neatly into the thirty-day month. But once the seven planets had been discovered, the number seven became sacred. Babylonian observatories were made seven stories high; state documents were sealed with seven seals. There were seven colors, seven musical notes, seven parts of the body; human lives were supposed to consist of seven-year periods. . . . The week was given seven days, awkward as this unit was. And each day was named after and presumably dominated by a single planet. To this day the names of the days retain the system: Sun-day, Moon-day, Tiu/Mars-day, Woden/Mercury-day, Thor/Jupiter-day, Freya/Venus-day, Saturn-day. Although the names of our days derive mainly from Norse mythology, the system can be considered a gift from Babylon. . . .'

'Rudolf Thiel, from And There was Light, translated from the German by Richard and Clara Winston, 1957.