Odon (river)
The Odon is a river in the Calvados department, in Normandy, northwestern France. It is 47 km long and is a left tributary of the Orne. The river passes through Jurques, Aunay-sur-Odon, Baron-sur-Odon, Bretteville-sur-Odon, Épinay-sur-Odon, Grainville-sur-Odon, Parfouru-sur-Odon, Tournay-sur-Odon and Tourville-sur-Odon. It flows into the Orne in Caen.
Odin
Anthony Birley has noted that Odin's apparent identification with Mercury has little to do with Mercury's classical role of being messenger of the gods, but appears to be due to Mercury's role of psychopomp. Other contemporary evidence may also have led to the equation of Odin with Mercury; Odin, like Mercury, may have at this time already been pictured with a staff and hat, may have been considered a trader god, and the two may have been seen as parallel in their roles as wandering deities. But their rankings in their respective religious spheres may have been very different. Also, Tacitus's "among the gods Mercury is the one they principally worship" is an exact quote from Julius Caesar's (1st century BCE) in which Caesar is referring to the Gauls and not the Germanic peoples. Regarding the Germanic peoples, Caesar states: "[T]hey consider the gods only the ones that they can see, the Sun, Fire and the Moon", which scholars reject as clearly mistaken, regardless of what may have led to the statement.