During my week the serious is barred; no business allowed. Drinking and being drunk, noise and games and dice, appointing of kings and feasting of slaves, singing naked, clapping of tremulous hands, an occasional ducking of corked faces in icy water,–such are the functions over which I preside.
– Cronus, Saturnalia of Lucian
This charm was made in celebration of Saturnalia, the Roman festival honoring Saturn as god of agriculture and abundance. Before he became the leaden lord of melancholy, Saturn was the Sower, credited with teaching humanity to cultivate the earth. Ovid called him senex falcifer, the scythe-bearing old man. His consort Ops was goddess of harvest bounty, his daughter Ceres the goddess of grain.
For seven days in December, Romans feasted, gambled, exchanged gifts, and upended social order. The statue of Saturn, whose feet were bound with woolen bands throughout the year, was ritually unbound. Seneca complained that the whole mob had let itself go in pleasures. Catullus referred to it as optimo dierum, “the best of days.”
The cry “Io Saturnalia!” echoed through Roman streets, attested by Macrobius, Martial, Cassius Dio, and a Pompeii graffito scratched before 79 CE. It was an invocation of release, of the Golden Age when Saturn reigned and abundance was shared freely among all.
Saturn is one of the patrons of this shop, and this charm honors him in his oldest and most joyful form. The design features a scythe crossed with wheat sheaves, with “Io Saturnalia” carved into the inside of the blade. It was hand-sculpted in wax and cast in solid sterling silver during the Saturnalia festival period.
Each charm measures approximately 2 inches tall and comes on a black satin cord or oxidized sterling silver chain. Only 10 are available.
References
- Ovid, Fasti
- Catullus, Carmina
- Seneca, Epistulae Morales
- Lucian, Saturnalia
- Macrobius, Saturnalia
- Cassius Dio, Roman History