SATURN and SATURNALIA. — For Roman literary tradition there is no doubt about the identity between the Roman god Saturnus and the Greek god Kronos: all the myths of the latter are automatically projected onto the former. It must be said, however, that for S., unlike the ancient Roman gods, sacrifices were offered to him bareheaded (Graeco ritu), and an ancient relationship between the two gods is not excluded. What is certain is that the origins of the Roman cult of S. go back to a time much earlier than Roman Hellenistic culture. His festival, the Saturnalia, already appears in the archaic calendar, and the temple of Saturn, at the foot of the Capitoline, built on the site of an earlier *ara Saturni*, was dedicated as early as 497 B.C. In this temple, outside of which no other place of worship of the god is known, the State treasury was kept.
Like Janus, Picus, and Faunus, Saturn also figures in Roman legendary tradition as an extremely ancient, indeed as the first king of Latium. On the human plane of legend, his reign had the same characteristics of a "golden age" that Greek mythology attributes, on the divine plane, to the age of Kronos. On the other hand, S. was credited with the introduction of agriculture, which is in accord with the ethnic and specifically agrarian character attributed to the god in later literature and representations. This character is often supported, for S., even by modern scholars who, despite the difference in the value of the first vowel, wish to derive his name from the verb *serere* (part. *satus*), "to sow."
A more reliable source for the character of the god is what is known about his festival. The Saturnalia are fixed on December 17, but in practice, in historical times, they extend for three, four, and even five days. The specific trait of the festival is the temporary freedom granted to slaves, who, during those days, live on a plane of equality with their masters or are even served by them. Mythologically, this custom is explained by the memory of the golden age under the reign of S., in which there were no class differences. A "king of the Saturnalia" was chosen by lot. No one could be summoned before the law during those days. For the duration of the festival, the chains (*compedes*) that the cult statue of S. wore, like slaves, were removed. Given their calendrical position, immediately preceding the winter solstice, the Saturnalia also had a New Year's character: greetings and candles were exchanged, whose light evidently alluded to the solar light about to be reborn. In this way, the Saturnalia, like analogous joyful and augural winter festivals in Germanic areas, constitute a precedent for the popular forms of Christian Christmas.
While literary tradition attributes to S. as his spouse Ops (identified with Rhea), who is instead linked, in the original cult, to Consus, alongside Saturn must be placed Lua Saturni, a goddess to whom the weapons captured from the defeated enemy were offered: destruction is also implicit in the goddess's name itself.
Epigraphic material does not provide direct information on the cult of S., who evidently played a minor role in private worship: in most inscriptions (especially African ones) the name of S. is merely a Roman *interpretatio*, and in reality refers to non-Roman deities identified with S.