Saturn Cutting off Cupid's Wings with a Scythe (1802) by Ivan Akimov (Tretyakov Gallery)
Courtesy of Wikipedia
On
this day in Ancient History, the Saturnalia festival continued for the Romans, with merriment, gambling, and role reversals. This is also one of the days in which the Roman
chthonic goddess Ops was honored with a festival named for her. Ops was the goddess of abundance, who came to be associated with
Rhea/Gaia (Earth mother-
titan),
Demeter/Ceres (grain goddess), and her daughter Kore/Persephone/Proserpina. She was often paired with the god Consus at whose festival, in the early legends of Rome, the
Sabine women were seized by the lusty young bachelors of the recently-founded city of Rome. She was also paired with Saturn perhaps because of their festivals' overlap.
"This day in ancient history" caveat: please see Unreliability of Dates.
Comments