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SATURN [SATURNUS]

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 232 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SATURN [SATURNUS] , a See also:god of See also:ancient See also:Italy, whom the See also:Romans, and till recently the moderns, identified with the See also:Greek god Cronus. 1. Cronus was the youngest of the See also:Titans, the See also:children of See also:Sky (See also:Uranus) and See also:Earth (Gaea). Besides the Titans, Sky and Earth had other children, the See also:Cyclopes and the See also:Hundred-handers. When the Cyclopes and the Hundred-handers proved trouble-some, Sky thrust them back into the bosom of Earth. This vexed Earth, and she called on her sons to avenge her on their See also:father Sky. They all shrank from the See also:deed See also:save Cronus, who waylaid and mutilated his father with a sickle or curved See also:sword. From the drops of See also:blood which See also:fell to the earth sprang the See also:Furies and the Giants. Cronus now reigned in See also:room of Sky. His wife was See also:Rhea, who was also his See also:sister, being a daughter of Sky and Earth. Sky and Earth had foretold to Cronus that he would be deposed by one of his own children, so he swallowed them one after another as soon as they were See also:born. Thus he devoured See also:Hestia, See also:Demeter, See also:Hera, Hades and See also:Poseidon.

But when Rhea had brought forth See also:

Zeus, the youngest,' she wrapped up a See also:stone in swaddling clothes and gave it to Cronus, who swallowed it instead of the babe. When Zeus, who had been hidden in See also:Crete, See also:grew up, he gave his father a dose which compelled him to disgorge first the stone and then the children whom he had swallowed. The stone was preserved at See also:Delphi; every See also:day it was anointed and on festivals it was crowned with See also:wool. Zeus and his See also:brothers now rebelled against Cronus, and after a ten years' struggle they were victorious. Cronus and the Titans were thrust down to See also:Tartarus, where they were guarded by the Hundred-handers. According to others, Cronus was removed to the Islands of the Blest, where he ruled over the departed heroes, judging them in See also:conjunction with See also:Rhadamanthus. See also:Plutarch (De Def. Orac. 18) mentions a See also:story that the dethroned monarch of the gods slept on an See also:island of the See also:northern seas guarded by See also:Briareus and surrounded by a See also:train of attendant divinities. The reign of Cronus was supposed to have been the See also:golden See also:age, when men lived like gods, See also:free from toil and grief and the weakness of old age (for See also:death was like See also:sleep) ; and the earth brought forth abundantly without cultivation. There are few traces of the See also:worship of Cronus in See also:Greece. See also:Pausanias, in his description of Greece, mentions only one See also:temple of Cronus; it stood at the See also:foot of the See also:Acropolis at See also:Athens and was sacred to Cronus and Rhea jointly.

The Athenians celebrated an See also:

annual festival in his See also:honour on the See also:lath of Hecatombaeon. A See also:mountain at See also:Olympia was called after him, and on its See also:top annual sacrifices were offered to him at the See also:spring See also:equinox. The See also:idea that Cronus was the god of See also:time seems to have arisen from a See also:simple confusion between the words Cronus and Chronus (" time "). See also:Curtius derives Cronus from the See also:root kra, meaning " to accomplish." Cronus may have been a god of some aboriginal See also:half-See also:savage tribe which the Greeks conquered. Hence the savage traits in his See also:legend, his See also:conquest by Zeus and the scanty traces of his worship in Greece. The myth of the See also:mutilation of Sky by Cronus may be a particular See also:form of the widespread story of the violent separation of Sky and Earth by one of their children. Other forms of this myth are found in New See also:Zealand, See also:India and See also:China. See also:Parallels to the swallowing and disgorging incident are to be found in the folk-See also:lore of See also:Bushmen, Kaffres, Basutos, See also:Indians of See also:Guiana and See also:Eskimo. 2. Saturn and his wife Ops were amongst the See also:oldest deities of ancient Italy. He is said to have had an See also:altar at the foot of the Capitol before See also:Rome was founded. Saturn was a god of See also:agriculture, his name being derived from serene, " to sow."' The See also:identification of Saturn with Cronus3 gave rise to the legend that after his deposition by Zeus (See also:Jupiter) Saturn wandered to So See also:Hesiod.

But, according to See also:

Homer, Zeus was the eldest of the children of Cronus and Rhea. z He was also known by the epithet of Stercutus or Sterculius, the god of fertilizing manure. 'Cronus himself was a See also:harvest god under one of his aspects. Italy, where he ruled as See also:king in the golden age and gave the name See also:Saturnia to the See also:country.' See also:Janus, another of the most ancient gods of Italy, is said to have welcomed him to Rome, and here he settled at the foot of the Capitol, which was called after him the Saturnian See also:Hill. His temple stood at the ascent from the See also:Forum to the Capitol and was one of the oldest buildings in Rome, but the eight remaining columns of the temple probably formed a portion of a new temple built in the imperial times. The See also:image of Saturn in this temple had woollen bands fastened See also:round its feet all the See also:year through, except at the festival of the Saturnalia; the See also:object of the bands was probably to detain the deity. Similarly there was a fettered image of Enyalius (the See also:War God) at See also:Sparta, and at Athens the image of Victory had no wings, lest she might See also:fly away. The mode of See also:sacrifice at this temple was so far See also:peculiar that the See also:head of the sacrificer was See also:bare as in the Greek See also:ritual, instead of being covered, as was the usual See also:Roman practice. Legend said that the Greek ritual was introduced by See also:Hercules, who at the same time abolished the human sacrifices previously offered to Saturn. Others said that the See also:rule had been observed by the See also:Pelasgians before. Under or behind the temple was the Roman See also:treasury, in which the archives as well as the treasures of the See also:state were preserved. See also:Dionysius Halicarnassensis (See also:Ant.

Rom. i. 34) tells that there were many sanctuaries of Saturn in Italy and that many towns and places, especially mountains, were called after him. The oldest See also:

national form of See also:verse was known as the Saturnian. Like many other figures in Roman See also:mythology, Saturn is said to have vanished at last from earth. His See also:emblem was a sickle. The substitution of a See also:great See also:scythe for the sickle, and the addition of wings and an See also:hour-See also:glass, are See also:modern.' Ops (" plenty "), wife of Saturn, was an earth-goddess, as appears from the See also:custom observed. by her suppliants of sitting and carefully touching the earth while they. made their vows to her. As goddess of crops and the harvest she was called Consiva, and under this name had a See also:sanctuary at Rome, to which only the Vestals and the See also:priest were admitted. As Saturn was identified in later times with Cronus, so was Ops with Rhea. Another goddess mentioned as wife of Saturn was Lua, a goddess of barrenness. She was one of the deities to whom after a victory the spoils of the enemy were sometimes dedicated and burned. Saturnalia.—This, the great festival of Saturn, was celebrated on the 19th, but after See also:Caesar's reform of the See also:calendar on the 17th, of See also:December. See also:Augustus decreed that the 17th should be sacred to Saturn and the 19th to Ops." Henceforward it appears that the 17th and 18th were devoted to the Saturnalia, and the r 9th and loth to the Opalia, a festival of Ops.' Caligula added a fifth day, " the day of youth" (See also:dies juvenalis), devoted no doubt to the See also:sports of the See also:young.

But in popular usage the festival lasted seven days. The woollen fetters were taken from the feet of the image of Saturn, and each See also:

man offered a See also:pig. During the festival See also:schools were closed; no war was declared or See also:battle fought; no See also:punishment was inflicted. In See also:place of the toga an undress; garment (See also:synthesis) was worn. Distinctions of See also:rank were laid aside: slaves sat at table with their masters or were waited on by them, and the utmost freedom of speech was allowed them. Gambling with See also:dice, at other times illegal, was now permitted .8 All classes exchanged gifts, the commonest being See also:wax tapers and See also:clay dolls. These dolls were especially given to children, and the makers of them held a See also:regular See also:fair at this time. See also:Varro thought these dolls represented See also:original sacrifices of human beings to'the infernal god. There was, as we have seen, a tradition that human sacrifices were once offered to Saturn, and the Greeks and Romans gave the name of Cronus and Saturn to a cruel Phoenician See also:Baal, to whom, e.g. children were sacrificed at See also:Carthage. The Cronus to whom human sacrifices are said to have been offered in See also:Rhodes was probably a Baal, for there are traces of Phoenician worship in Rhodes. It may be conjectured that the Saturnalia was originally a celebration of the See also:winter See also:solstice. Hence ' He is said to have taught the inhabitants of See also:Latium agriculture, the See also:art of See also:navigation and the use of stamped pieces of See also:metal for See also:money.

5 During the first centuries of the See also:

Christian era, Saturn was one of the See also:chief popular divinities of northern See also:Africa, representing the Carthaginian Baal under the See also:title of See also:Dominus Saturnus; see Toutain, De Saturn dei in Africa See also:Romana cultu (1894). 6 There was also a See also:special festival, Opeconsiva, on Aug. 25. ' The See also:fourth day of the festival was added by some one unknown. 8 It is curious to find a similar rule with a similar exception in See also:Nepal. See H. A. See also:Oldfield, Sketches from Nepal, vol.ii. pp. 353 sq. the legend that it was instituted by See also:Romulus under the name of the Brumalia ( bruma =winter solstice). The prominence given to candles at the festival points to the custom of making a new See also:fire at this time. The custom of solemnly kindling fires at the summer solstice (See also:Eve of St See also:John) has prevailed in most parts of See also:Europe, notably in See also:Germany, and there are traces (of which the See also:yule-See also:log is one) of the observance of a similar custom at the winter solstice.

In ancient See also:

Mexico a new fire was kindled, amid great rejoicings, at the end of every See also:period of fifty-two years. The designation of the See also:planets by the names of gods is at least as old as the 4th See also:century B.C. The first certain mention of the See also:star of Cronus (Saturn) is in See also:Aristotle (See also:Metaphysics, p. 1073 b. 35). The name also occurs in the Epinomis (p. 987 b), a See also:dialogue of uncertain date, wrongly ascribed to See also:Plato. In Latin, See also:Cicero (1st century B.c.) is the first author who speaks of the See also:planet Saturn. The application of the name Saturn to a day of the See also:week (Saturn dies, Saturday) is first found in See also:Tibullus (i. 3, 18). (J. G.

End of Article: SATURN [SATURNUS]

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