So persistent is the superstition surrounding the number thirteen that many hotels continue to omit a thirteenth floor. Some local jurisdictions never designate thirteen as a street-address number, and wary hosts avoid having a dinner party consisting of thirteen guests.

It is widely believed that the fear of thirteen - or triskaidekaphobia - originated with the Last Supper. The traitor Judas was the insidious thirteenth participant in that portentous Passover meal. It may also be the Friday the Thirteenth is deemed particularly unlucky because Christ was crucified on a Friday. Another source of triskaidekaphobia, less well known but probably valid, has to do with the Norse goddess Freya, after whom Friday is named. Both Friday and the number thirteen were sacred to her.

For early Christian missionaries bent on stamping out paganism - particularly paganism rooted in a matriarchal tradition - the greatest of the Norse goddesses was especially odious, and so were her day and number.

In fact, however, the aversion to thirteen is not confined to Christian cultures. Even the Norse were ambivalent: There is a Norse myth about twelve gods holding a banquet and neglecting to invite Loki, god of mischief. The malicious god - the thirteenth guest - crashed the party and played a trick that resulted in the death of one of the other deities. In a remarkably similar Greek myth, the twelve Olympians held a feast and did not include Eris, goddess of discord. For spite, she threw into the deities' midst a golden apple that was inscribed For the Fairest. According to legend, contention over which of the goddesses deserved the prized eventually led to the Trojan War.

Numerologists of antiquity had a certain contempt for thirteen because it exceeded the number twelve, which was associated with completion. Thirteen was thus the number no one needed or wanted, the one that signified a breach of proper limits. Ancient Romans believed thirteen to be unlucky, as did some sects in India.

Nevertheless, thirteen's bad repute is not universal. The number is a rather propitious one in Hebrew lore, and it had divine importance for certain Indian tribes of Central America. Moreover, a few Christian numerologists were kindly disposed to it, pointing out that the Trinity and the Ten Commandments added up to thirteen, as did Christ and his twelve apostles.

MYSTERIES OF THE UNKNOWN
volume: Visions and Prophecies
by the Editors of Time Life Books.....................................................................BACK to 13