Saturn

Saturn is a major Roman (specifically, south Italian) deity of agriculture and harvest, identified in antiquity with the Greek deity CRONUS (KRONOS), and the mythologies of the two gods are commonly mixed. Saturn’s wife is RHEA’s equivalent – not MAGNA MATER, the Great Mother. Saturn was the father of CERES, JUPITER and VERITAS, among others. Saturn had a temple on the Forum Romanum which contained the Royal Treasury. Originally, Saturn was a corn god, and in this light had a more wholesome relationship with DEMETER (Roman) or GAIA (Greek). Saturn was said to be protector of sowers and seeds. His wife, OPS, also helped the harvest. Later, as Greek culture increasingly influenced Roman religion, Saturn became associated with Cronus, the Titan and father of Jupiter. In this way, Saturn was personified, and a great number of stories came into being about him. In Hesiod’s Theogony, a mythological account of the creation of the universe and Zeus’ rise to power, Saturn is mentioned as the son of URANUS, the heavens, and Gaia, the earth. Saturn seizes power, castrating and overthrowing his father Uranus. However, it was foretold that one day a mighty son of Saturn would in turn overthrow him, and Saturn devoured all of his children when they were born to prevent this. Saturn’s wife, Ops, hid her sixth child on the island of Crete, and offered Saturn a large stone wrapped in swaddling clothes in his place. Jupiter later overthrew Saturn and the other Titans, becoming the new supreme ruler of the cosmos. In memory of the Golden Age of man, a mythical age when Saturn was said to have ruled, a great feast called Saturnalia was held during the winter months around the time of the winter solstice. It was originally only one day long, taking place on December 17, but later lasted one week. During Saturnalia, roles of master and slave were reversed, moral restrictions lessened, and the rules of etiquette ignored

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