Saturn (mythology)

Saturn (

Saturn had two mistresses who represented different aspects of the god. The name of his wife, Ops, the Roman equivalent of Greek Rhea, means "wealth, abundance, resources."^[6] The association with Ops is considered a later development, however, as this goddess was originally paired with Consus.^[7](p 244) Earlier was Saturn's association with Lua ("destruction, dissolution, loosening"), a goddess who received the bloodied weapons of enemies destroyed in war.^[8]

Under Saturn's rule, humans enjoyed the spontaneous bounty of the earth without labour in the "Golden Age" described by Hesiod and Ovid. He became known as the god of time.

Etymology and epithets

According to Varro,^[10] Saturn's name was derived from satus, meaning "sowing". Even though this etymology is problematic from the viewpoint of modern linguistics (for, while historically-motivated vowel length alternations do occur in Latin roots, the long ā in Sāturnus in particular remains unexplained with this etymology, and also because of the epigraphically attested form Saeturnus),^[11] nevertheless it does reflect an original feature of the god.^{[12](p 144)} Perhaps a more probable etymology connects the name with the Etruscan god Satre and placenames such as Satria, an ancient town of Latium, and Saturae palus, a marsh also in Latium. This root may be related to Latin phytonym satureia.^[13] (Like satus, however, satureia, Saturae palus, and probably also Satria, as indeed the apparently closely related Satricum, all also have a short a in the first syllable vs. the long ā of Sāturnus.)

Another epithet, variably

Temple

The temple of Saturn was located at the base of the Capitoline Hill, according to a tradition recorded by Varro^[17] formerly known as Saturnius Mons, and a row of columns from the last rebuilding of the temple still stands.^[6] The temple was consecrated in 497 BC but the area Saturni was built by king Tullus Hostilius as confirmed by archaeological studies conducted by E. Gjerstad.^[18] It housed the state treasury (aerarium) throughout Roman history.

Festival's time

The position of Saturn's festival in the Roman calendar led to his association with concepts of time, especially the temporal transition of the New Year. In the Greek tradition, Kronos was sometimes conflated with Chronos, "Time," and his devouring of his children taken as an allegory for the passing of generations. As such, the Roman Saturn had similar associations. The sickle or scythe of Father Time is a remnant of the agricultural implement of Cronus-Saturn, and his aged appearance represents the waning of the old year with the birth of the new, in antiquity sometimes embodied by Aion. In late antiquity, Saturn is syncretized with a number of deities, and begins to be depicted as winged, as is Kairos, "Timing, Right Time".^[19]

In Roman religion

Theology and worship

The figure of Saturn is one of the most complex in Roman religion. Dumézil refrained from discussing Saturn in his work on Roman religion on the grounds of insufficient knowledge.^[7] Conversely, however, his follower Dominique Briquel has attempted a thorough interpretation of Saturn utilising Dumézil's three-functional theory of Indo-European religion, taking the ancient testimonies and the works of A. Brelich and G. Piccaluga as his basis.^[12][20]

The main difficulty scholars find in studying Saturn is in assessing what is original of his figure and what is due to later hellenising influences. Moreover, some features of the god may be common to Cronus but are nonetheless very ancient and can be considered proper to the Roman god, whereas others are certainly later and arrived after 217 BCE, the year in which the Greek customs of the Kronia were introduced into the Saturnalia.^{[12](p 142 ff)}

Briquel's analysis

Among the features which are definitely authentic of the Roman god, Briquel identifies:

1. the time of his festival in the calendar, which corresponds to the date of the consecration of his temple (the Greek Cronia on the other hand took place in June–July);
2. his association with Lua Mater, and
3. the location of his cult on the Capitol, which goes back to remote times.^[21]

These three elements in Briquel's view indicate that Saturn is a sovereign god. The god's strict relationship with the cults of the Capitoline Hill and in particular with Jupiter are highlighted by the legends concerning the refusal of gods

Dumézil postulated a split of the figure of the sovereign god in Indoeuropean religion, which is embodied by Vedic gods Varuna and Mitra.^[22] Of the two, the first one shows the aspect of the magic, uncanny, awe inspiring power of creation and destruction, while the second shows the reassuring aspect of guarantor of the legal order in organised social life. Whereas in Jupiter these double features have coalesced, Briquel^[12] sees Saturn as showing the characters of a sovereign god of the Varunian type. His nature becomes evident in his mastership over the annual time of crisis around the winter solstice, epitomised in the power of subverting normal codified social order and its rules, which is apparent in the festival of the Saturnalia, in the mastership of annual fertility and renewal, in the power of annihilation present in his paredra Lua, in the fact that he is the god of a timeless era of abundance and bounty before time, which he reinstates at the time of the yearly crisis of the winter solstice.

In Roman and Etruscan reckoning Saturn is a wielder of lightning; no other agricultural god (in the sense of specialized human activity) is one.^[23][d] Hence the mastership he has on agriculture and wealth cannot be that of a god of the third function, i.e. of production, wealth, and pleasure, but it stems from his magical lordship over creation and destruction. Although these features are to be found in Greek god Cronus as well, it appears that those features were proper to Roman Saturn's most ancient aspects, such as his presence on the Capitol and his association with Jupiter, who in the stories of the arrival of the Pelasgians in the land of the Sicels^{[24][14](1.7.27–31)} and that of the Argei orders human sacrifices to him.^[25]

Briquel concludes that Saturn was a sovereign god of a time that the Romans perceived as no longer actual, that of the legendary origins of the world, before civilization.^{[12](p 155)}

Roman cult practices

Sacrifices to Saturn were performed according to "Greek rite" (

Saturn is associated with a major religious festival in the Roman calendar, Saturnalia. Saturnalia celebrated the harvest and sowing, and ran from December 17–23. During Saturnalia, the social restrictions of Rome were relaxed. The figure of Saturn, kept during the year with its legs bound in wool, was released from its bindings for the period of the festival.^[14](1.8.5) The revelries of Saturnalia were supposed to reflect the conditions of the lost "Golden Age" before the rule of Saturn was overthrown, not all of them desirable, except as a temporary relief from civilized constraint. The Greek equivalent was the Kronia.^[33]

It was customary for the Romans to represent divine figures as kings of Latium at the time of their legendary origins. Macrobius states explicitly that the Roman legend of Janus and Saturn is an affabulation, as the true meaning of religious beliefs cannot be openly expressed.^[14](1.7.18) In the myth^{[14](1.9.-)[36]} Saturn was the original and autochthonous ruler of the Capitolium, which had thus been called the Mons Saturnius in older times and on which once stood the town of Saturnia.^{[14](1.7.27, 1.10.4) [37]} He was sometimes regarded as the first king of

The Golden Age of Saturn's reign in Roman mythology differed from the Greek tradition. He arrived in Italy "dethroned and fugitive,"^{[38](p 143)} but brought agriculture and civilization for which he was rewarded by Janus with a share of the kingdom, becoming himself king. As the Augustan poet Virgil described it, "He gathered together the unruly race" of fauns and nymphs "scattered over mountain heights, and gave them laws ... . Under his reign were the golden ages men tell of: in such perfect peace he ruled the nations."^[39] He was considered the ancestor of the Latin nation as he fathered Picus, the first king of Latium, who married Janus's daughter Canens and in his turn fathered Faunus.

Saturn was also said to have founded the five Saturnian towns of Latium: Aletrium (today

But Saturn also had a less benevolent aspect, as indicated by the blood shed in his honor during gladiatorial munera. His consort in archaic Roman tradition was Lua, sometimes called Lua Saturni ("Saturn's Lua") and identified with Lua Mater, "Mother Destruction," a goddess in whose honor the weapons of enemies killed in war were burned, perhaps as expiation.^[6] Versnel, however, proposed that Lua Saturni should not be identified with Lua Mater, but rather refers to "loosening"; she thus represents the liberating function of Saturn.^{[38](p 144)}

Gladiatorial munera

Saturn's chthonic nature connected him to the underworld and its ruler Dis Pater, the Roman equivalent of Greek Plouton (Pluto in Latin) who was also a god of hidden wealth.^[g] In 3rd-century AD sources and later, Saturn is recorded as receiving gladiatorial offerings (munera) during or near the Saturnalia.^{[41][38](p 144–145)} These gladiator combats, ten days in all throughout December, were presented by the quaestors and sponsored with funds from the treasury of Saturn.^[h]

The practice of gladiatorial munera was criticized by

In 104 BCE, the

• Planets in astrology § Saturn
• Satre (Etruscan god)
• Saturnalia

Footnotes

References

1. ISBN 978-0-19-509539-5
   . Retrieved 2008-02-04.
2. ^ Festus. Saturnia. 430 L.
3. ^ Ovid. Fasti. 6, 31.
4. doi:10.3406/rbph.1996.4096. citing Festus^[a] and Ovid.^[b]
5. ^ Saturni filius, frg. 2 in the edition of Baehrens.
6. ^ ^{a b c d e f g}
   Mueller, Hans Friedrich (2010). "Saturn". Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome. Oxford University Press. p. 222.
7. ^ ^{a b} Dumézil, G. (1977) [1974]. La religion romain archaïque (Italian translation ed.). Paris, FR / Milan, IT. part I, chap. 5, page 244–245.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
8. ^ G. Dumézil (1968, 1959) "Lua Mater" in Déesses latines et mythes védiques Bruxelles pp. 98–115. Dumézil compared this Roman figure with Indian deity Nírŗti.
9. ^ ^{a b}
   ISBN 978-0-19-954006-8
   .
10. ^ Marcus Terentius Varro. De lingua latina. 5.64.
11. ^ Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. I 2nd 449.
12. ^
    doi:10.3406/rhr.1981.4889
    .
13. ^ Alessio, G. (1949). Cressati, Taranto (ed.). "Genti e favelle dell' antica Apulia". Archivio Storico Pugliese. II (1): 14.
14. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k}
    
    Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius. Saturnalia
    . 1.1.8 – 1.10.4.
15. ^ Kaufman, Frederick (February 2008). "Wasteland: A journey through the American cloaca". Harper's Magazine.
16. ^ Sextus Pompeius Festus. De verborum significatu. 432L.
17. ^ Marcus Terentius Varro. Lingua Latina. V 52.
18. ^ In Mélanges A. Grenier Bruxelles (1962) pp. 757-762 as cited by Briquel^{[12](p 141)}
19. ^ Macy, Samuel L. (1994). "Father Time". Encyclopedia of Time. Taylor & Francis. pp. 208–209.
20. ^ Brelich, A. (1956). Tre variazioni romane sul tema delle origini. Roma, IT.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
    Piccaluga, G. (1974). Terminus. Roma, IT.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
21. ^ ^[14](1.7.-) cited by Briquel^{[12](p 143)}
22. ^ Dumézil, G. (1940). Mitra-Varuna. Paris, FR.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
    Dumézil, G. (1977). Les dieux souverains des Indo-Europééens. Paris, FR.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
23. Maurus Servius Honoratus
    . Ad Aeneidem. I 42; XI 259.
24. ^ Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Roman Antiquities. I.19.1.
25. ^ Ovid. Fasti. V. 621–662, esp. 626–629.
26. ^
    Maurus Servius Honoratus. Ad Aenaeidem. III 407. cited by Briquel^[12]
    ^(p 148)
27. ^ Plutarch. Quaestiones Romanae. II. cited by Briquel^{[12](p 148 n. 63)}
28. ^ Pliny, Natural History 15.32.
29. ^ Robert Graves, "The Greek Myths: 1" page 41
30. ^ Tertullian, De testimonio animae 2.
31. ^ Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae 7.72.13.
32. ^ ^{a b} Leglay, Marcel (1966). Saturn africain. Histoire BEFAR. Paris, FR: de Boccard.
33. ^ Hansen, William F. (2002). Ariadne's Thread: A guide to international tales found in classical literature. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. p. 385.
34. ^ Chance, Jane (1994). Medieval Mythography: From Roman North Africa to the Cchool of Chartres, A.D. 433–1177. University Press of Florida. p. 71.
35. ^ Kaster, Robert A., ed. (2011). Macrobius: Saturnalia, Books 1–2. Loeb Classical Library. note on p. 16.
36. Vergil
    . Aeneis. VII, 49.
37. ^ Marcus Terentius Varro. Lingua Latina. V 42 and 45.
    
    Vergil
    . Aeneis. VIII 357-358.
    Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Roman Antiquities. I 34.
    Festus. Saturnia. 322 L.
    Pliny the Elder. Natural History. III 68.
    Minucius Felix. Octavius. 22.
    Tertullian. Apologeticum. 10. cited by Briquel^{[12](p 154)}
38. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k}
    Versnel, H.S. (1994) [1993]. "Saturnus and the Saturnalia". Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion: Transition and Reversal in Myth and Ritual. Brill.
39. ^ Virgil. Aeneid. 8.320–325. cited by Versnel^{[38](p 143)}
40. ^ Pincherle, Mario; Volpi, Giuliana C. (1990). La civiltà minoica in Italia: Le città saturnie. Pisa, IT: Pacini.
41. ^ For instance, Ausonius. Eclogue. 23. and De feriis Romanis. 33–37. See Versnel^{[38](pp 146 and 211–212)} and Wiedemann, Thomas E.J. (1995) [1992]. Emperors and Gladiators. Routledge. p. 47.
42. ^ Salzman, Michele Renee (1990). On Roman Time: The codex-calendar of 354 and the rhythms of urban life in late antiquity. University of California Press. p. 186.
43. ^ Barton, Carlin A. (1993). The Sorrows of the Ancient Romans: The gladiator and the monster. Princeton University Press. p. 166.
44. ^ Fowler, W.W. (1908). The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic. London, UK. p. 272.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

Bibliography

• Georges Dumézil (1974) La religion romaine archaïque Paris Payot 2nd; Italian translation (expanded version) La religione romana arcaica Milano Rizzoli 1977. Edizione e traduzione a cura di Furio Jesi.
• Dominique Briquel (1981) "Jupiter, Saturn et le Capitol. Essai de comparaison indoeuropéenne" in Revue de l' histoire des religions 198 2. pp. 131–162.
• Marcel Leglay (1966) Saturn africain. Histoire BEFAR Paris de Boccard.
• H.S. Versnel (1993, 1994) "Saturnus and the Saturnalia", in Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion: Transition and Reversal in Myth and Ritual, Brill, pp. 144–145.

Further reading

Wikiquote has quotations related to Saturn (mythology).

• Guirand, Felix (Editor); Aldington, Richard (Translator); Ames, Delano (Translator); & Graves, Robert (Introduction). New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology.
  ISBN 0-517-00404-6

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Saturn (god)".

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Saturnus (deus).

• The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Saturn)
• al-Balkhī, Ja‘far ibn Muḥammad (1488) [c. 835 CE]. Flowers of Abu Ma'shar
  (in English and Latin). Translated by Hispalensis, Joannes. Augsburg, DE: Erhard Ratdolt. Retrieved 2021-10-13 – via World Digital Library. — c. 9th century; depicts and discusses Saturn and his role within astrology.