Note 666 — Chapter VI · LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK

See the exhaustive collection of the evidence, both literary and inscriptional, in Roscher, “Fristen und Wochen,” pp. 41-68; idem, “Sieben- und Neunzahl,” pp. 4-53; idem, “Hebdomadenlehren,” pp. 7-23. Some students have seen in this sanctity of seven the results of early intercourse with the Orient through Phœnician channels (V. Bérard, in Revue de l’histoire des religions, 1899, xxxix, 426 sq.; compare A. Thumb, “Die Namen der Wochentage im Griechischen,” Zeitschrift für deutsche Wortforschung, 1901, i, 163 sq.). The theory of the diffusion of the cult of seven from the East might now be strengthened by substituting Cretan for Phœnician intermediaries. Nilsson argues that the seven-cult, together with the worship of Apollo, reached Greece by way of Asia Minor, “eine Etappe auf dem Wege nach Babylonien” (Archiv für Religionswissenschaft, 1911, xiv, 447 sq.).