Hail Saturnus!
May we glimpse now the golden otherworld
And find the joy of merry-making in this!
Let us know and do what otherwise we might not
And honour thee in this art of celebration!
Io Saturni!

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The Saturnalia begin the epagomenal period – the five days that stand outside and beyond the 360 days of the year as a circle. The interregnum is a suspension of time and, as such, is a suspension of normal activities. Proverbially, behaviour is to be reversed. In Rome, school was suspended, prisoners released from jail, punishment of criminals was interrupted, courts were closed, the masters waited upon and served their workers, and cross-dressing was for everyone. Even war would be disrupted temporarily. As the epagomenae stand outside time, inverted behaviour and activities became de rigueur. One does now differently than one does during time – at least normal time – to pass through this five-day period of potential risk and danger. Feasting, celebration and festivity are to be characteristic of the Saturnalia and the successive days that lead up to the winter solstitial rebirth of the sun.

The Saturnalia are the evocation of the golden age – a legendary period that belongs as much to a mythical past as it does to the otherworld of joy and release. The epagomenal period that they inaugurate constitutes the prototypical carnival – here appended to the solar year as the final five days of February are the equivalent that belongs to the sacral year commencing with the Kalends of March. The solar saeculium has been buried on the preceding Consualia, and the new one will begin with the solstice. Until this last, we are in an inter tempus.

For the Saturnalia themselves, the exchange of gifts is undertaken – a feature that survives with the giving of presents associated with contemporary yuletide celebrations. For the Romans, these gifts comprised primarily cerei, sigillaria and strenae, respectively, wax tapers, earthenware figures similar to the oscilla and perhaps surving in the Provençal santons, and boughs decorated with sweetmeats and dried fruits. In keeping with the liberating reversals of behaviour, the more restrictive toga was put aside for the more comfortable synthesis.  In the temple of Saturnus, the woollen fillets that were otherwise wound around the deity’s idol were ritually removed.

In legend, Saturnus is known as the first king of Latium – welcomed by Janus. He becomes the father of Picus who in turn fathers Faunus. The lineage belongs to Mars, and the Saturnus-Janus pairing most likely are an instance of Mars and Jupiter as the ubiquitous divine twins throughout Roman religion. Janus presides over the Janiculum on the right bank of the Tiber, while Saturnus is associated with the Capitoline on the left bank which, according to Varro, was originally known as the Mons Saturnus and the settlement found there was named Saturnia. Saturnus was a revered king, and his reign as the first civiliser was Italy’s golden age. The Saturnia regna ended when Saturnus himself mysteriously disappeared.

These associations suggest that Saturnus is a further indigitation of Quirinus – the Mars twin who belongs primarily to the netherworld. A sacellum belonging to the Dis Pater either adjoined the temple of Saturnus at the foot of the Capitoline or was close to it – further suggesting the deity as the underworld/chthonian father. But simultaneously, Saturnus’ aedes is also next to the forum Romanum, the chief market of the city. The market day itself, the nundinae, is, according to Macrobius, sacred to Saturnus. His temple was used as the aerarium or national treasury. The Latin term for ‘money’ is pecunia which derived from pecus, the word for ‘cattle’. The pecus was the original form of wealth. This cattle connection further suggests the affinity of Saturnus with the lords of cattle, Mars and his special instance as Hercules. Saturnus comes to vanish in a manner that is similar to the apotheosis of Romulus, fathered by Mars and an avatar of his father.

The agricultural-terrestrial association of Saturnus is suggested by the likelihood of his name deriving from serere ‘to sow’, satum ‘sown’ and satus ‘sowing’. The related idea of satis or satiare suggests the fulfilment or satiation that becomes additionally an expected part of carnivalesque celebration. Consequently, Saturnus is the grounding deity of agriculture and husbandry, a special instance of Mars, while his temporary reign is an ephemeral and Quirinus-oriented return to the golden age of freedom, joy and non-distinction. The luminescent notion that belongs to a golden age may be suggestive of the matinal light that, during this otherwise darkest time of year, precedes the ultimate sunrise of the winter solstice. The Saturnalia commence the period of true celebration and festivity – a peak and interrupting moment in the ring of time.

Saturnus’ identity with the Greek Cronus appears to have more to do with the latter’s confusion with Chronus, the god of time. However, in cult terms, even the Greek figure and father of Zeus appears to be a terrestrial figure of the crops and harvest whose festival, the Cronia, supports this contention.