Heavenly Figures 7

Saturn, the Farm Worker

This article is long overdue but happens to be fitting for January, as Saturn traditionally rules both Capricorn and Aquarius. I wish you all a happy new year and thanks for sticking with me! Please let me know if there’s anything you’re particularly interested in seeing for 2025.

In Arabic Saturn is known as al-Zuḥal, and nicknamed al-naḥs al-akbar “The Greater Misfortune” (Mars being the lesser one) or, squarely, al-muqātil “the Killer”. In a vast area compirsing central and western Asia, Saturn was personified as a male deity called Kaywan (Arabic), Kayvan (Persian), Kaimanu (Sumerian), etc... It’s therefore curious that Arabic should have retained Zuḥal as the planet’s name, though an explanation may be its etymology: the root زحل implies withdrawal and remoteness, fitting for this planet which for a long time was the most distant wandering celestial object visible to the naked eye. My personal guess is that, as in the case of al-Mushtari, al-Zuḥal started out as a nickname, and overtook the original proper name (making it more acceptable to a monotheistic faith).¹

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Picturing Saturn (al-Zuḥal الزحل)

The iconography of Saturn is complex, combining the attributes of Greco-Roman Chronos (the personification of Time, confused and assimilated with Kronos, father of Zeus, who castrated his father and ate his children) and of the Hindu description of the planetary figure as miserable of aspect: skinny, smelly, with unkempt hair and broken teeth. Thus he’s sometimes represented holding any (or all!) of the following:

• A sickle, scythe or other agricultural tool: Kronos was a chthonian (underworld) deity, a personification of an aspect of nature, which associates him with agriculture. The Romans Saturn was explicitly a protector of harvests, and continued to be a protector of farmers and agricultural activities in Islamic astrology. A pickax may be substituted, and this may be a reference to other underground labour such as mining.

• A dagger or sword: symbol of the planet’s destructive power. This probably also applies to the axe we sometimes see. Note that in pre-Islamic Arabia, Zuhal was believed to punish anyone who ruined arable land, which he protected.

• A crown: Saturn is seen as an ancient, dethroned king, for instance as Kronos who was supplanted by his son Zeus. The crown is a reminder of his ancientness and the experience he holds.

• A rat: All animals that live underground, and that are considered vermin, are under Saturn’s patronage, but the rat may be a more specific reference to the planet as an agricultural deity that doubles as a bringer of calamity: Saturn has the power to either keep a plague of rats at bay, or to unleash it, depending.

• A round fruit that is probably a pomegranate: an ancient symbol of fertility that was associated with the planet in romanised provinces of North Africa, and left as an offering to him.

• A walking stick, especially in images of Capricorn where the figure is straddling a kid goat: a reference to old age or perhaps wandering, as this usually has a bundle attached. Whether this is vagrancy brought on by poverty, or the wandering of a Hindu ascetic or Sufi, is an interesting point.

But we rarely find Saturn depicted with this array of attributes: on the metalwork we’re looking at, the prevalent object is usually the hoe. Even in the absence of this, he’s immediately identifiable by his long and very pointed white beard on a skinny face, often seen in profile, and his clothing: short trousers and a waistcoat, sometimes a brimless hat, the typical dress of farmers and peasants in the original context. Being heavily associated with India, and indeed the protector of all dark-skinned peoples, Saturn’s skin is always painted black or dark brown in full-colour images.

For descriptions of the source objects, please refer to the first post in this series.

Basin 2 and the Vaso Vescovali present a multi-armed figure, in the Indian tradition, and a rare view of the planet's multiple attributes. I can't make out all of them but there appears to be a dagger (unless it's the hair part of a disembodied head), a rat in each, a snake, a walking stich with bundle, and what appears to be a dog. I should note that in Islam dogs are considered unclean and used to be reviled.

Basin 1 and Tray 1 only show the simplest silhouette, but the pointed beard is unmistakable.

The penbox alone shows a curiously divergent depiction of Saturn without his signature beard. But the short trousers, pickax/hoe, round fruit and crown are all signatures.

Painted bowl and Mamluk tray: the same, with pickax.

On Inkwell 1, we see Saturn within the astrological signs of Aquarius (left) and Capricorn (right). Note the stick with bundle in the latter; this iconography is remarkably consistent through the objects below.

Bowl 2: The only difference in Aquarius is the humorous addition of a bird swooping in to drink (the figure seems in the process of protesting). In Capricorn, Saturn holding his stick and bundle looks back. Observe how this exact image is repeated in the next few objects.

Ewer 1, Ewer 2

Ewer 3, Inkwell 3

Bowl 1, Penbox are more examples of Saturn being part of the iconography for Aquarius

MS1 gives us a better look at the black-painted skin and white hair and beard. Here’s a rare view of the crown attribute.

MS2 updates the dress to what I assume was worn by 16th-century Turkish farm workers, but is faithful to the spirit, showing spades and pickaxes.

Sigil رسم

The modern symbol for Saturn ♄ has been traced back, minus the cross-bar (a fifteenth-century addition), to Graeco-Byzantine papyri. It may have ultimately originated in a scythe, as seen in Bianchini’s planisphere², but this is disputed. In any case, the glyph on the thirteenth-century Astrolabe 1, shown twice in this detail, looks strikingly similar to the Graeco-Byzantine original when seen with this orientation. The problem is this astrolabe shows the only examples I know, so there’s no knowing whether this is indeed the intended orientation. As for the Ghayat al-Hakim version, they are most definitely related to the original, a natural result of drawing that “n” shape using only straight lines, either due to speed or to deliberate abstraction.

To finish, here are some of the correspondences for Saturn listed in Ghāyat al-Hakīm:

Languages: Coptic القبطية and Hebrew العبرانية

Cloth: All coarse cloth

Taste: Repugnant بشيعة, such as myrobalan

Places: Black mountains الجبال السود, shadowy valleys الاودية المظلمة, vaults السراديب, wells الآبار, tombs القبور, wastelands القفار

Gemstones: Onyx الجزع, black stones الحجارة السود, magnetite حجر المغنيطس

Metals: Lead الرصاص, iron الحديد, anything black in colour اسودّ لونه and unpleasant in smell نتن ريحه

Plants: Oak البلّوط, gallnuts(?)³, carob الخرّوب, palm tree النخل, vineyards الكروم, boxthorn العوسج, cumin الكمّون, rue السذاب, onion البصل and everything thick-leaved, and every tree with harmful thorns

Pharmaceutics: Aloe الصبر, myrrh المرّ and similar, Ricinus communis الخروع البرّي, colocynth الحنظل البرّي and of perfume oils: cinnamon السليخة and benzoin/storax الميعة

Animals: All black in colour and hideous in appearance, like those that are black among camels, sheep, pigs, wolves, apes, dogs, felines, and every long-necked savage-sounding bird like ostriches and bustards; owls, crows, bats, cranes, and every animal that retires underground, and every insect that stinks and is unclean.

Colours: Black السواد and leaden الرصاصية

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Previous posts in this series:

Heavenly Figures 1

Heavenly Figures 2

Heavenly Figures 3

Heavenly Figures 4

Heavenly Figures 5

Heavenly Figures 6

1. I’ve seen a mention that Zuḥāl was the Meccan goddess of Saturn, to whom the Kaaba was consecrated, but I don’t know the original source and can’t find a way to verify it.

2. See my discussion of Venus’s siglis in part 3.

3. The text has عصف which could mean “husk”, but as that’s a stretch and the list begins with “oak”, I feel it may be a scribal error for عفص “oakgalls”.