SATURN AND THE SATURNALIA. - For the 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, in any case, that to S. [Saturn], unlike the ancient Roman gods, sacrifice was offered with the head uncovered (Graeco ritu) and that an ancient connection between the two gods is not excluded. What is certain is that the origins of the Roman cult of S. go back to times far more ancient 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 older ara Saturni, was already dedicated in 497 B.C. In this temple, outside of which no other place of worship of the god is known, the treasury of the State was kept.
Like Janus, Picus and Faunus, Saturn too figured in Roman legendary tradition as a most ancient, indeed as the first king of Latium. On the human plane of the 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, the introduction of agriculture was traced back to S., which is in accord with the chthonic and specifically agrarian character attributed to the god in late literature and depictions. This character is often maintained for S. also 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."
For the character of the god, a more reliable source is what is known about his festival. The Saturnalia are fixed on Dec. 17, but in practice, in historical times, they are prolonged 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 footing 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 distinctions. A "king of the Saturnalia" was chosen by lot. During those days no one could be summoned before the law. From the cult image of S. were removed, for the duration of the festival, the chains (compedes) that it wore, like slaves, continuously. The Saturnalia, given their calendrical position, immediately preceding the winter solstice, also had the character of a New Year: greetings and candles were exchanged, whose light evidently alluded to the sunlight that was about to be reborn. Thereby the Saturnalia, like analogous joyful and auspicious winter festivals in the Germanic region, constitute a precedent for the popular forms of the Christian Christmas.
While the literary tradition attributes to S. as his spouse Ops (identified with Rhea), who instead proves to be linked, in the original cult, to Consus, alongside Saturn must be placed Lua Saturni, a goddess to whom were offered the weapons captured from the destroyed enemy: destruction is implicit also in the very name of the goddess.
The epigraphic material offers no direct information on the cult of S., which evidently had little part in private worship: in most of the inscriptions (especially African ones) the name of S. is merely an interpretatio Romana and in reality these are non-Roman divinities identified with S.