Difference between revisions of "Saturnalia"

Saturn also had a less benevolent aspect. One of his consorts was Lua, sometimes called ''Lua Saturni'' ("Saturn's Lua") and identified with ''Lua Mater'', "Mother Destruction", a goddess in whose honor the weapons of enemies killed in war were burned, perhaps in expiation. [[Saturn]]'s chthonic nature connected him to the underworld and its ruler Dis Pater, the Roman equivalent of Greek Plouton ([[Pluto]] in Latin) who was also a god of hidden wealth. In sources of the third century AD and later, Saturn is recorded as receiving dead gladiators as offerings (''munera'') during or near the Saturnalia. These gladiatorial events, ten days in all throughout December, were presented mainly by the quaestors and sponsored with funds from the treasury of Saturn.

The practice of gladiator munera was criticized by [[Christianity|Christian]] apologists as a form of human sacrifice. Although there is no evidence of this practice during the Republic, the offering of gladiators led to later theories that the primeval Saturn had demanded human victims. Macrobius says that Dis Pater was placated with human heads and Saturn with sacrificial victims consisting of men (''virorum victimis''). During the visit of Hercules to Italy, the civilizing demigod insisted that the practice be halted and the ritual reinterpreted. Instead of heads to Dis Pater, the Romans were to offer effigies or masks (''oscilla''); a mask appears in the representation of Saturnalia in the Calendar of Filocalus. Since the Greek word phota meant both 'man' and 'lights', candles were a substitute offering to Saturn for the light of life. The figurines that were exchanged as gifts (''sigillaria'') may also have represented token substitutes.