SATURN, SATURNUS, SAETURNUS, a Roman god of sowing, or of seed-corn (Satus), identified with Cronus (q.v.), for reasons no longer apparent. His cult was so over-laid with Greek features that almost nothing is known of its original form. His cult-partner was the very obscure goddess Lua (hies, plague or destruction) ; she was amongst other things a fire-goddess in whose honour spoils were sometimes burned (see Rose in Class. Rev., xxxvi., p. 15 et seq.). But, since for some reason Ops, the cult-partner of Consus (q.v.) became identified with Rhea, Saturn is often associated with her.
His temple stood at the foot of the clivus Capitolinus leading from the Forum, where the ruins of a late restoration of it are still visible. It contained the Republican treasury (aerarium Saturn°. The statue had woollen bands around its feet, probably to keep it from running away (so at Sparta the statue of Enyalius the war-god was fettered, and there are plenty of savage parallels), see Macrob. Saturn, i. 8, 5; this too is Greek, for cult-statues are not native Roman. Also the worship was Graeco ritu, i.e., with the head uncovered, not wrapped in the toga as was the Roman custom. His great festival was the Saturnalia, originally Dec. 19, but gradually extended to seven days. We may conjecture that it was connected with the winter sowing, which in modern Italy lasts in various districts from October to January. Be that as it may, in historical times it was a most lively popular festival, probably modelled on the Greek Kronia (see CRoNus). All business, public
and private, was at a standstill; schools were closed, executions and military operations did not take place, slaves were tempo rarily free, feasting with and even waited on by their masters, and saying what they chose. All and sundry were greeted with io Saturnalia, and presents were freely exchanged, the traditional ones being wax candles and little clay dolls. Concerning these, the antiquaries had a quaint story that an old prophecy bade the earliest inhabitants of Latium send Oc7p-a to Saturn and heads to Pluto ; that they interpreted this as meaning human sacrifices, but that Hercules (q.v.) advised them to use lights (the word 'RIZ means "light" or "man" according to accentuation) and not human "heads" (Macrob., op. cit., i. 7, 31). Gambling with dice, generally forbidden, was allowed, a custom which is exactly paral leled from Nepal (Oldfield, Sketches from Nepal, ii. p. 353 et seq.). Saturnus himself was untied, presumably to come out and join in the fun.
Saturni dies (Saturday) occurs first in Tibullus, I., 3, 18, see Colson, The Week, pp. 15, 16, 35.
See W. Warde Fowler, Roman Festivals; G. Wissowa, Religion u. Kultus (2nd ed. 1912), p. 204 et seq., and in Roscher's Lexikon (s.v.).