Cult of Gods

Saturn

Roman tradition. See the whole pantheon.

Domains
agriculture, the Golden Age, the Saturnalia
Symbols and attributes
Sickle
Partner
Ops
Children
Jupiter, Juno, Neptune, Pluto / Dis Pater, Ceres, Vesta
Giacomo Caneva, photograph of a statue of Jupiter in the Campana collection, 1850s.
Giacomo Caneva, photograph of a statue of Jupiter in the Campana collection, 1850s.

Key myth

In Virgil's account, Saturn fled to Latium when Jupiter overthrew him, and ruled a Golden Age there. The Saturnalia in December was the year's great holiday, with role reversals and gifts.

Where sources differ or caution applies. Linked with the Greek Cronus, but Saturn's cult predates the identification.

Greek counterpart: Cronus on thegreekgods.org. Roman and Greek versions share names and stories in many places but began as different cults.

Primary sources

  • Virgil, Aeneid VIII
  • Macrobius, Saturnalia I

All sources for the Roman pantheon

Place in the family graph

Choose a deity to see where it comes from. Dashed lines are links the sources describe that are not parent and child.

SaturnOpsJanusJupiterJunoNeptunePluto / Dis PaterCeresVestaQuirinusMinervaApolloDianaMercuryBacchus / LiberMarsVulcanVenus

More traditions

Odin rides to Hel, W. G. Collingwood, after the Poetic Edda.NorsePapyrus of Ani, British Museum (New Kingdom), a Book of the Dead.EgyptianA chaos monster and a sun god, drawn by L. Gruner for A. H. Layard's Monuments of Nineveh.MesopotamianVishvarupa Vishnu, Kashmir or Himachal, in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art collection.Hindu

Elsewhere in the world

Deities in other traditions who share a theme with Saturn: earth, harvest and fertility. This is overlap in one area only.

Norse

Sif

golden hair, grain (by later reading)

Norse

Freyr

peace, fertility, sunshine

Egyptian

Geb

earth

Egyptian

Osiris

afterlife, resurrection, fertility of the flood

Egyptian

Sobek

Nile, fertility, kingship

Mesopotamian

Ninlil

grain, wind (as Enlil's wife)

Compare across cultures