Saturn , in Roman mythology,
ancient god of agriculture. In later legends he was identified with the
Greek god Cronus, who, after having been dethroned by his son Zeus (in
Roman mythology, Jupiter), fled to Italy, where he ruled during the Golden
Age, a time of perfect peace and happiness. Beginning on December 17 of
each year, during the festival known as the Saturnalia, the Golden Age
was restored for seven days. All business stopped and executions and military
operations were postponed. It was a period of goodwill, devoted to banquets
and the exchange of visits and gifts. A special feature of the festival
was the freedom given to slaves, who during this time had first place at
the family table and were served by their masters. Saturn was the husband
of Ops, goddess of plenty. Besides Jupiter, who was ruler of the gods,
Saturn's children also included Juno, goddess of marriage; Neptune, god
of the sea; Pluto, god of the dead; and Ceres, goddess of the grain. In
art Saturn is usually shown bearded, carrying a sickle or an ear of corn.
Satyrs, deities of the
woods and mountains, with horns and tails and sometimes with the legs of
a goat. The satyrs were the companions of Dionysus, god of wine, and spent
their time pursuing nymphs, drinking wine, dancing, and playing the syrinx,
flute, or bagpipes.
Scylla and Charybdis,
two sea monsters dwelling on the opposite sides of a narrow strait, the
personification of the dangers of navigation near the rocks and eddies.
Scylla was a horrible creature with 12 feet and 6 long necks, each bearing
a head with 3 rows of teeth, with which she devoured any prey that came
within reach; she lived in a cave on a cliff. Across the strait, opposite
her, was a large fig tree under which Charybdis, the whirlpool, dwelt,
sucking in and belching forth the waters of the sea three times daily,
engulfing anything that came near. When the Greek hero Odysseus passed
between them, he was able to avoid Charybdis, but Scylla seized six men
from his ship and devoured them. In later times, the geographical position
of this dangerous passage was believed to be the Strait of Messina between
Italy and Sicily, with Scylla on the Italian side. Scylla, originally a
beautiful maiden loved by a sea god, had been transformed into a monster
by her jealous rival, the sorceress Circe.
Selene, goddess of the
moon, the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia, and the sister of
Helios, god of the sun. Selene fell in love with the handsome young shepherd
Endymion, whom she lulled into an eternal sleep so that he could never
leave her. In art, Selene is represented driving a chariot drawn by two
horses, or sometimes, by two oxen. She is often identified with the Olympian
goddess of the moon, Artemis.
Semele, the daughter of
Cadmus and Harmonia, king and queen of Thebes, and the mother of the god
Dionysus. Hera, the jealous wife of Zeus, realizing that her husband was
madly in love with the Theban princess, tricked Semele into asking to see
Zeus in his majesty. Bound by an oath, Zeus appeared before the unfortunate
woman in all his divine glory. As Semele gazed at him, she was consumed
by the lightning bolts that radiated from him. Zeus was able to rescue
her unborn child, Dionysus, from the ashes, however, and he hid the fetus
in his side until it was time for it to be born. Later the young god rescued
Semele from the underworld and brought her to Olympus.
Serapis, also Sarapis,
in Greek and Egyptian mythology, a deity, variously associated with Osiris,
Hermes, and Hades, introduced in the 3rd century BC as a state god for
both Greeks and Egyptians. Serapis was believed by Egyptians to be a human
manifestation of Apis, a sacred dead bull that symbolized Osiris; Serapis
was represented as a god of fertility and medicine and the ruler of the
dead in Tartarus. The worship of Serapis spread throughout the ancient
world and the Roman Empire. The cult waned with the ascendancy of Isis,
the Egyptian goddess of motherhood and fertility, and the destruction of
the temple to Serapis in Alexandria in AD 385 marked the virtual end of
paganism in the Roman Empire.
Seven Against Thebes,
ill-fated expedition against the city of Thebes undertaken by seven chieftains
and their followers under the leadership of Adrastus, king of Argos, and
Polynices, the son of Oedipus, the former king of Thebes. After losing
the throne to his younger brother, Eteocles, Polynices fled to Argos and
married the daughter of Adrastus. The Argive king then organized a great
army to march against the Thebans and restore Polynices to the throne.
The other leaders of the expedition were Tydeus of Calydon, Parthenopaeus
of Arcadia, Capaneus and Hippomedon of Argos, and Amphiaraus. The seven
gates of Thebes were defended by seven Theban champions. During the siege
Polynices and Eteocles slew each other, thus fulfilling the curse of their
father. The battle ended with the defeat and death of all the Argives except
Adrastus, who fled with his broken army to Athens. Ten years after the
disaster, the sons of the seven warriors, the Epigoni, successfully marched
against the city to avenge the deaths of the heroes.
Sibyl, in Greek and Roman
mythology, any woman inspired with prophetic power by the god Apollo. The
sibyls lived in caves or near streams and prophesied in a frenzied trance,
usually in Greek hexameters, which were handed down in writing. Early Greek
writers mention only one sibyl, probably the Erythraean Herophile, who
predicted the Trojan War. In later legends, the number of sibyls was increased
to ten, including the Samian, the Trojan or Hellespontine, the Phrygian,
the Cimmerian, the Delphian, the Cumaean, the Libyan, the Tiburtine, and
the Babylonian or Persian sibyls. Of these, the most important in Roman
mythology was the Cumaean sibyl, Deiphobe. Apollo had promised to grant
her anything she wished, and she asked to live for as many years as there
were grains of sand in her hand. She did not ask, however, for eternal
youth as well and became so withered that she was hung upside down in a
bottle. Her overwhelming desire to die could not happen. In later legend,
she guided the Trojan prince Aeneas through the underworld to visit his
father Anchises. According to another legend, she appeared in the form
of an aged woman before Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last
king of Rome, and offered him nine prophetic books at a high price. When
he refused her, she destroyed three books and then offered the remaining
six at the original price; again Tarquin refused, and she destroyed three
more. The king finally bought the remaining three at the price demanded
for the nine. These three books were placed in the temple of the god Jupiter
in Rome and were consulted in times of great emergency. Although the original
Sibylline Books were destroyed in a fire in 83 BC, a new collection was
subsequently compiled. These, however, were destroyed in AD 405.
Silenus, oldest of the
satyrs, the son of Hermes, messenger of the gods, or of Pan, a woodland
god. The tutor of the young god Dionysus, Silenus often accompanied him
on his travels. The old satyr was usually drunk, and he could be compelled,
if caught in a drunken sleep, to prophesy the future. As a reward for his
hospitality to Silenus, Dionysus granted Midas, king of Phrygia, the golden
touch. In art Silenus is represented as a little old man in a state of
jovial intoxication.
Sirens, sea nymphs, with
the bodies of birds and the heads of women, the daughters of the sea god
Phorcys. The Sirens had voices of such sweetness that mariners who heard
their songs were lured onto the rocks on which the nymphs sang. The Greek
hero Odysseus was able to pass their island with safety because, following
the advice of the sorceress Circe, he stopped the ears of his companions
with wax and had himself firmly bound to the mast of the ship so that he
might hear the songs without danger. In another legend the Argonauts escaped
the Sirens because Orpheus, who was on board the Argo, sang so sweetly
that he drowned out the song of the nymphs. According to later legends,
the Sirens, in vexation at the escape of Odysseus or at the victory of
Orpheus, threw themselves into the sea and perished.
Sisyphus, king of Corinth,
the son of Aeolus, king of Thessaly. Sisyphus saw the god Zeus carry off
the beautiful maiden Aegina and told her father what he had witnessed.
Enraged with Sisyphus, Zeus condemned him to Tartarus, where he was compelled
for eternity to roll to the top of a steep hill a stone that always rolled
down again.
Sphinx, monster with the
head and breasts of a woman, the body of a lion, and the wings of a bird.
Lying crouched on a rock, she accosted all who were about to enter the
city of Thebes by asking them a riddle, "What is it that has four feet
in the morning, two at noon, and three at night?" If they could not solve
the riddle, she killed them. When the hero Oedipus solved the riddle by
answering, "Man, who crawls on four limbs as a baby, walks upright on two
as an adult, and walks with the aid of a stick in old age," the sphinx
killed herself. For ridding them of this terrible monster, the Thebans
made Oedipus their king. In ancient Egypt, sphinxes were statues representing
deities, with the body of a lion and the head of some other animal or of
man, frequently a likeness of the king. The most famous of all Egyptian
sphinxes is the Great Sphinx of Giza, near the pyramids. Dating from before
2500 BC, the Great Sphinx is about 20 m (about 66 ft) high and about 73
m (about 240 ft) long.
Styx, a river, the entrance
to the underworld. It was often described as the boundary river over which
the aged ferryman Charon transported the shades of the dead. The river
was personified as a daughter of the Titan Oceanus, and Styx was the guardian
of the sacred oaths that bound the gods. The actual river, the modern name
of which is the Mavronéri, is in northeastern Arcadia, Greece. It
plunges over a 183-m (600-ft) cliff, then flows through a wild gorge. The
ancient Greeks believed that its waters were poisonous, and the river was
associated with the underworld from the time of Homer.
