Saturnalia. Ancient Rome cult of Saturn (sociologicamente.it)
I Saturnalia et Opalia were a cycle of festivals among the most important of Roman religion and were celebrated from December 17 to 23 – a period established in imperial times by Domitian – in honor of the god Saturn and the goddess Opis, his wife. The Saturnalia began six days after the Agonalia in honor of Sol Indiges (god Apollo), and symbolized the hoped-for return to the abundance of the golden age of father Saturn; having become an Olympic exile because repudiated by Jupiter following the titanomachy, he was then hosted by the God Janus in Latium, where he reigned for the entire aurea aetas, guaranteeing freedom, equality, bliss, and prosperity.
Hesiod thus described that period:
«A golden lineage of mortal men created in the very early times the immortals who dwell on Olympus. They lived in the times of Cronus, when he ruled in the sky; as gods, they passed their lives with minds free from anguish, distant, away from toil and misery; nor did miserable old age weigh upon them [… ] they had all beautiful things».
In fact, at the time of the golden age, men lived in peace and prosperity, but its sad end came both because of the paternal filicide committed by Saturn – he was therefore dethroned – and because of the fabulous Pandora, wife of Epimetheus. To him was given a forbidden jar by Jupiter, with the aim of taking revenge for the theft suffered by his brother Prometheus. Jupiter, as a skilled manipulator and strategist, was sure that Pandora would fall victim to the curiosity instilled in her by Mercury, and indeed she opened the jar and from there all the evils of the world that would then afflict humanity forever flowed out.
F. Goya, Saturn devouring his children
The Saturnalia were celebrated in Rome, since the republican age, taking on greater significance in the imperial era. Probably these rites, linked to classical mythology, are a legacy both Greek and Etruscan. The origins of the Saturnalia are probably traceable to a Pelasgian cultural heritage, arising after the prolonged slaughter by the Pelasgi against the Siculi in Italian land. Pagan rituality was made official in 217 BC and subsequently the days of celebration underwent a repeated calendar evolution: under Caesar there were two, under Augustus four, under Caligula five and, lastly, under Domitian seven; that is until the eve of the Natalis Solis. In fact, the time that precedes the winter solstice is a period of transition between the old and the new year, between the sun that is dying and the new that must "rise again" announcing the future spring.
During the Saturnalia, the social order was overturned. In homage to the memory of the equality experienced during the golden age, the large number of servants present at the celebrations was, for the occasion, equated with the masters. There were no more class differences, everyone wore the pilleum – the Phrygian cap of Persian tradition – symbol of free men. A saturnalicius princeps was even elected by drawing lots, who represented both a satirical antithesis of the senatus princeps (the emperor) and a strange caricature of the noble class, and to him was assigned every power over the festival itself, he was dressed in a carnival manner and in bright colors among which red stood out, the color of the gods and emperors.
'Saturnalia, banquet'
At the Temple of Saturn in the Forum, the official ceremony took place. A priest without veiled head performed the canonical rituals, namely a solemn sacrifice that consisted of unwrapping the woolen bands that wrapped the feet of the statue of Saturn. Thus, Saturn, now unbound, could fulfill his functions as the founder of a new era until the end of the year. Candles were lit in the streets so that the light could warm and illuminate the passersby, and a large number of fir garlands were also hung on the buildings in honor of the God Janus.
Subsequently, the Senate held a lectisternium, a rite directed at the image of the God Saturn, which concluded with a convivium publicum, or a collective banquet where the diners wore the cenatoria, a tunic of extremely colorful designs. Enormous processions, rich symposia, fairs, shows, propitiatory sacrifices in the name of the chthonic deities, gambling, otium, and often orgies, animated the exuberant festivities.
Temple of Saturn, Rome
The poet Catullus defined the festivities: «of the Saturnalia, the most beautiful of days!»
The greeting exchanged by the guests was «Io Saturnalia!», an invocation of good omen to cheer the celebrations. Often the greeting was accompanied by small symbolic gifts called strenne (cult of the goddess Strenua) made of nuts, dates, and honey.
It was presumed that during the Saturnalia the gods Saturn, Proserpina, and Pluto wandered in the processions throughout the winter period, as the earth was at rest due to the winter frost. Therefore, it was necessary to appease their wills with the offering of gifts and festivities in their honor in order to make them benevolent and ensure that upon their return they would guarantee the fertility of the lands and the abundance of the summer harvests. During the celebrations, the courts and schools were closed, and it was even forbidden to declare war, impose capital punishment, and wear mourning.
I Saturnalia represented the passage between the old year and the new, the reunification between two cosmic cycles, that is, the reintegration of the world into its informal origin. For this reason, the solstitial days until New Year's were lived, in the apparent contradiction between euphoria, confusion, and the desire for renewal, in anticipation of a palingenesis. Saturn, a contradictory deity, reigned over such solstitial ambiguities, and did so with a mocking smile, that of one who possessed the keys to the "great cosmic game".
Seneca wrote: «According to Epigenes of Byzantium, the planet Saturn exerts a very powerful influence on the movements of all celestial bodies».
Saturn was the god who closed one cycle and opened a new one who symbolically withdrew the dice from the table and threw them again forming new combinations. Saturn-Kronos was the demiurge and lord of time who controlled creation according to his changing intentions. His influence was exercised from the abyss of Tartarus to the center of the earth. Saturn, or the black sun of the beginnings, died during the winter solstice to be reborn as God-child at the beginning of the new year.
At the end of the Saturnalia, from December 21 to 25, the Dies Solis Invicti (the Nativity of the Unconquered Sun) was celebrated, the powerful God of light and life. Every Roman emperor felt close to solar and salvific deities, and such celebrations, formalized in 274 BC, marked the cyclical and everlasting rebirth of life that defeated darkness and cosmic chaos. Subsequently, before polytheism was swallowed by monotheism, from the 2nd to the 4th century, Christ was identified as a Sun God under the aegis of Apollo.
The symbols and traces of ancient civilizations still necessarily live mutatis mutandis in the collective imagination of all humanity. The archaic legacy absorbed by today's cults has deep and pagan roots.
Gianmario Sabini
