SATURN,

Saturn (Latin: 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.

Etymology and epithets

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,

as quoted by Cicero^[9]

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 Sterculius, Stercutus, and Sterces, referred to his agricultural functions;^[14](1.7.25) this derives from stercus, "dung" or "manure", referring to re‑emergence from death to life.^[15] Farming was important to Roman identity, and Saturn was a part of archaic Roman religion and ethnic identity. His name appears in the ancient hymn of the Salian priests,^[16] and his temple was the oldest known in the records of the pontiffs.

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.