ODIN

A Scand in avian deity, who seems, like the Jupiterofthe Greeks, to have formed the connecting link between the ancient and more recent systems of their mythology. The conqueror Odin appears to have been a chieftain who led the Asi (the Goths) from the confines of Asia to northern Europe. But, when deified by public adoration, the attributes of an earlier deity seem to have been transferred tohim. Odin is the chief of the gods; by his wife Freya he has two chief sons, Thor and Balder: the death of the latter (for the Scand in avian gods are not all immortal) furnishes many legends to the northern mythology, and is known to English readers by Gray's translation, The Descent of Odin. (See this article in the Conv. Lex., and in the Encycl. of Ersch and Gruber.) The more ancient Odin, among the Romans, was regarded as the representative of their god Mercury- See Wuotan. [s. 860]