Saturn, or Kronos, was a principal deity in Greek and Roman mythology.

The old Italic Saturn, whose

name indicates that he was a god of harvests, and the old Grecian Kronos, a thoroughly symbolic being,
which, like his brothers, the Titans, is suggestive of the primeval and uniform forces of nature, and has a
probable though partial connection with the Phœnician Moloch (q. v.), are deities of two religions which
often diverge from each other; and a modern learned mythology, which everywhere intermixes Greek
and Roman elements, has met with but indifferent success in the endeavor to combine the two gods
into one. Kronos, the son of Uranus and Gæa, was the most cunning of the Titans. His mother had given
birth to the Centimani and the Cyclops, and Uranus had confined them in the underworld on account of
their monstrous shapes and strength. Enraged by this action, Gæa proposed to her younger children to
avenge their brothers; but they all shrank from laying violent hands on their father, with the exception
of Kronos, who hid himself, and at night emasculated Uranus and threw the generative organs down
upon the earth, thereby fructifying it. Kronos then married the Titaness Rhea, from whom sprang the
entire race of the gods who ruled the world. To avoid a prophecy by his parents which foretold that one
of his children should dethrone him, he swallowed all his children immediately after their birth,
excepting Jupiter, whom Rhea saved by giving Kronos a stone wrapped in cloths instead. The child grew
rapidly, and attained in a single year to extraordinary size and strength. Metis (cunning) now gave him
an emetic, which he administered to Kronos, with the result that he cast up all the children he had
swallowed, together with the stone. The latter was placed for a memorial at the foot of Mount
Parnassus, and Jupiter conspired with his brothers and sisters to dethrone their father, whom he
mutilated as Uranus had been; but when he sought to secure the throne for himself the Titans resisted,
with the result that after ten years’ war Jupiter released the Centimani and the Cyclops, and with their
aid overcame the Titans, whom he imprisoned in the dungeon where the Cyclops had lain. The division
of authority was then determined among the Kronidæ by lot, Pluto receiving the earth, Neptune the sea,
and Jupiter the heavens and supreme authority over all. The dethroned Kronos or Saturn, it is said, now
fled to Italy and inaugurated the golden age. Men lived, like the gods, without care, in uninterrupted
happiness, health, and strength; they did not grow old; and to them death was a slumber which relieved
them of their present nature and transformed them into dæmons. The earth yielded every kind of fruit,
and gave up all its treasures without cultivation and labor. Under the reign of Saturn men lived the life of
paradise. To keep alive the recollection of this primitive life of innocence, freedom, and equality, the
festival of the Saturnalia was instituted at Rome, which began on Dec. 17, and continued, first a single
day, but afterwards for longer periods, until in the time of the emperors it extended over an entire
week. During its continuance all business was interrupted; all distinctions between masters and slaves
were laid aside, so that slaves sat at the sumptuous table and masters waited on them, and every form
of recreation was allowed. In Greece Kronos or Saturn possessed temples of extremely ancient date. His
temple at Rome stood at the foot of the Capitol, and served as an archive of the State and also as its
treasury. The god is usually represented as bearing a sickle. The scythe, wings, and hour-glass, which are
likewise often introduced in such representations, are added notions of more recent date, and resulted
from a change in the mode of conceiving of the god. The Persians gave this deity an almost wholly
animal representation: the lower parts of the body resemble those of swine, a human body with arms is
added, and an animal head with crown completes the figure.—Vollmer, Wörterb. d. Mythol. s. v. See
Smith, Dict. of Gr. and Rom. Mythol. s. v.1

1
M’Clintock, J., & Strong, J. (1880). Saturn, or Kronos. In Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and
Ecclesiastical Literature (Vol. 9, p. 370). New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers.