The Saturn Myth Pdf

[Jacqualine Henington]

SaturnLatin: Sāturnus [saːˈtʊrnʊs]) was a god in ancient Roman religion, and a character in Roman mythology. He was described as a god of time, generation, dissolution, abundance, wealth, agriculture, periodic renewal and liberation. Saturn's mythological reign was depicted as a Golden Age of abundance and peace. After the Roman conquest of Greece, he was conflated with the Greek Titan Cronus. Saturn's consort was his sister Ops, with whom he fathered Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Juno, Ceres and Vesta.

Saturn was especially celebrated during the festival of Saturnalia each December, perhaps the most famous of the Roman festivals, a time of feasting, role reversals, free speech, gift-giving and revelry. The Temple of Saturn in the Roman Forum housed the state treasury and archives (aerarium) of the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. The planet Saturn and the day of the week Saturday are both named after and were associated with him.

The Roman land preserved the remembrance of a very remote time during which Saturn and Janus reigned on the site of the city before its foundation: the Capitol was called mons Saturnius.[4] The Romans identified Saturn with the Greek Cronus, whose myths were adapted for Latin literature and Roman art. In particular, Cronus's role in the genealogy of the Greek gods was transferred to Saturn. As early as Andronicus (3rd century BC), Jupiter was called the son of Saturn.[5]

By Saturn they seek to represent that power which maintains the cyclic course of times and seasons. This is the sense that the Greek name of that god bears, for he is called Cronus, which is the same as Chronos or Time. Saturn for his part got his name because he was "sated" with years; the story that he regularly devoured his own children is explained by the fact that time devours the courses of the seasons, and gorges itself "insatiably" on the years that are past. Saturn was enchained by Jupiter to ensure that his circuits did not get out of control, and to constrain him with the bonds of the stars.

Quintus Lucilius Balbus gives a separate etymology in Cicero's De Natura Deorum.[9] In this interpretation, the agricultural aspect of Saturn would be secondary to his primary relation with time and seasons. Since 'Time consumes all things', Balbus asserts that the name Saturn comes from the Latin word satis; Saturn being an anthropomorphic representation of Time, which is filled, or satiated, by all things or all generations. Since farming is so closely linked to seasons and therefore an understanding of the cyclical passage of time, it follows that agriculture would then be associated with the deity Saturn.

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.

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]

The figure of Saturn is one of the most complex in Roman religion. Dumzil 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 Dumzil'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]

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 Iuventas and Terminus to leave their abode in the shrines on the Capitol when the temple of Jupiter was to be built. These two deities correspond to the helper gods of the sovereign in Vedic religion (Briquel[12] refers to Dhritarashtra and Vidura, the figures of the Mahabharata) and to the Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires in Hesiod. Whereas the helper gods belong to the second divine generation they become active only at the level of the third in each of the three instances of India, Greece and Rome, where they become a sort of continuation of Jupiter.[c])

Dumzil 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.

Sacrifices to Saturn were performed according to "Greek rite" (ritus graecus), with the head uncovered, in contrast to those of other major Roman deities, which were performed capite velato, "with the head covered." Saturn himself, however, was represented as veiled (involutus), as for example in a wall painting from Pompeii that shows him holding a sickle and covered with a white veil. This feature is in complete accord with the character of a sovereign god of the Varunian type and is common with German god Odin. Briquel remarks Servius had already seen that the choice of the Greek rite was due to the fact that the god himself is imagined and represented as veiled, thence his sacrifice cannot be carried out by a veiled man: This is an instance of the reversal of the current order of things typical of the nature of the deity as appears in its festival.[26]Plutarch writes his figure is veiled because he is the father of truth.[27]

Pliny notes that the cult statue of Saturn was filled with oil; the exact meaning of this is unclear.[28] Its feet were bound with wool, which was removed only during the Saturnalia.[14](1.8.5) The fact that the statue was filled with oil and the feet were bound with wool may relate back to the myth of "The Castration of Uranus". In this myth Rhea gives Cronus a rock to eat in Zeus's stead, thus tricking Cronus. Although mastership of knots is a feature of Greek origin [citation needed] it is also typical of the Varunian sovereign figure, as apparent e.g. in Odin. Once Zeus was victorious over Cronus, he sets this stone up at Delphi and constantly it is anointed with oil and strands of unwoven wool are placed on it.[29] The stone wore a red cloak,[30] and was brought out of the temple to take part in ritual processions[31] and lectisternia, banquets at which images of the gods were arranged as guests on couches.[6] All these ceremonial details identify a sovereign figure.

Saturn was also said to have founded the five Saturnian towns of Latium: Aletrium (today Alatri), Anagnia (Anagni), Arpinum (Arpino), Atina and Ferentinum (Ferentino, also known as Antinum) all located in the Latin Valley, province of Frosinone. All these towns are surrounded by cyclopean walls; their foundation is traditionally ascribed to the Pelasgians.[40]

In Roman mythology, Saturn (Latin: Saturnus) was a major Roman deity holding jurisdiction over agriculture and the harvest. Like many of the Roman mythological figures, Saturn was appropriated from the Greek tradition, and his mythology is commonly mixed with that of Cronus, the god of the harvest and one-time supreme deity in the Greek pantheon. Much like Cronus, Saturn also fell from his position of divine supremacy. However, Saturn maintained his significance in the popular religion of the Romans due mainly to the Saturnalia festival, which was centered upon him, far exceeding the measure of esteem Cronus ever enjoyed among the Greeks.

The origins of the theonym Saturn, and the nature of the earliest forms of the god are not altogether clear. While numerous authors both ancient and modern have suggested that the name derived from the verb sero/satum, "to sow," bearing an obvious connection to agriculture, others have disagreed.[1] The name more likely derives from the Etruscan Satre, which referred to a god of the underworld who was responsible for funereal matters. This etymology is supported by the fact that it parallels the origin of other Latin names that end in -urnus, -arnus, and -erna and demonstrably derived from Etruscan roots (such as Volturnus and Mastarna, among others).[2] If this is indeed the case, then Saturn may have originally been a underworld deity linked to funerary rites. This seems plausible, considering that Saturn has often been connected to the Roman institution of munera, gladiatorial exhibitions of Etruscan derivation which were originally held to celebrate the funerals of patricians.[1] After the Romans invaded Greece in 146 B.C.E. and subsequently began to acknowledge the Greek myths as their own, Saturn became virtually indistinguishable from Cronus.

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