by Spaciva Ivanova
The Roman God Saturnus
His name Sator, the sower, signifies abundance of the harvest. Saturn was a working god and a vine-grower. Under the name Sterculius he saw to the manuring of fields and taught the people how to cultivate the ground. His wife Ops was the personification of the earth's riches. Saturn was the King of Italy during its Golden Age.
He was driven from the heavens by Jupiter and hid in the countryside of a land called Latium - the site of the future Roma. Eventually, he became King of Latium, and ruled there with his wife Ops. As king, he brought peace, prosperity and abundance to the kingdom and was honored by having a festival day named for him. Saturnalia later became a week long event at midwinter starting on Dec. 17.
This is the time of year that the Romans decorated their homes with greenery and exchanged presents. Children were given toys and little clay figures called 'sigillaria '. Men would gather, drink wine and reflect on the 'good old days' when the kind Saturnus ruled a world of peace, plenty and placitude.
A big part of Saturnalia was the role reversals. (Not true ones, only symbolic ones - slaves weren't really free to make a freedman's decisions and anything they did or decreed would reverse at the end of Saturnalia.) Recreational gambling in the streets was also temporarily permitted.
During the festival of Saturnalia the red wool ropes that bound his feet for the rest of the year were untied. Saturn's statue was kept tied up in order to prevent him, and the prosperity and abundance he represented, from leaving Rome.
The Romans knew of seven bright objects in the sky, the sun, the moon and five brightest planets. They named them after their most important gods. Saturnus was also the Roman god of time and this is perhaps why the slowest (in orbit around the sun) of the five bright planets was named after him.
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