Editing Saturnalia (section)

===Human offerings===
[[File:Oscillum con due maschere di pan e baccante, arte galloromana, I sec dc.JPG|thumb|During Saturnalia, the Romans offered ''[[oscilla|oscillum]]'', effigies of human heads, in place of real human heads.<ref name="Taylor"/><ref name="Chance"/>]]
Saturn also had a less benevolent aspect. One of his consorts was [[Lua (goddess)|Lua]], sometimes called ''Lua Saturni'' ("Saturn's Lua") and identified with Lua Mater, "Mother Destruction", a goddess in whose honor the weapons of enemies killed in war were burned, perhaps in expiation.<ref>{{harvnb |Mueller |2010 |page=222}}; Versnel, however, proposes that ''Lua Saturni'' should not be identified with ''Lua Mater'', but rather refers to "loosening": she represents the liberating function of Saturn {{harvnb |Versnel |1992 |page=144}}</ref> Saturn's [[chthonic]] nature connected him to the underworld and its ruler [[Dīs Pater]], the Roman equivalent of Greek [[Pluto (mythology)|Plouton]] (Pluto in Latin) who was also a god of hidden wealth.<ref>{{harvnb |Versnel |1992 |pages=144–145}} See also the [[Satre (Etruscan god)|Etruscan god Satre]].</ref> In sources of the third century AD and later, Saturn is recorded as receiving dead [[gladiator]]s as offerings (''munera'') during or near the Saturnalia.<ref>For instance, [[Ausonius]], ''Eclogue'' 23 and ''De feriis Romanis'' 33–7. See {{harvnb |Versnel |1992 |pages=146 and 211–212}} and [[Thomas Ernst Josef Wiedemann|Thomas E. J. Wiedemann]], ''Emperors and Gladiators'' (Routledge, 1992, 1995), p. 47.</ref> These gladiatorial events, ten days in all throughout December, were presented mainly by the [[quaestor]]s and sponsored with funds from the treasury of Saturn.<ref>More precisely, eight days were subsidized from the Imperial treasury (''arca fisci'') and two mostly by the sponsoring [[Roman Magistrates|magistrate]]. Salzmann, Michele Renee, ''On Roman Time: The Codex-Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity'' ([[University of California Press]], 1990), p. 186.</ref>

The practice of gladiator ''munera'' was criticized by [[Christian apologists]] as a form of [[Religion in ancient Rome#Human sacrifice|human sacrifice]].{{sfn |Mueller |2010 |page=222}}{{sfn |Versnel |1992 |page=146}} Although there is no evidence of this practice during the Republic, the offering of gladiators led to later theories that the primeval Saturn had demanded human victims. Macrobius says that Dīs Pater was placated with human heads and Saturn with sacrificial victims consisting of men (''virorum [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#victima|victimis]]'').<ref>Macrobius, ''Saturnalia'' 1.7.31</ref>{{sfn |Versnel |1992 |page=146}} In mythic lore, during the visit of [[Hercules in ancient Rome|Hercules to Italy]], the civilizing demigod insisted that the practice be halted and the ritual reinterpreted. Instead of heads to Dīs Pater, the Romans were to offer effigies or masks ''([[oscilla]])''; a mask appears in the representation of Saturnalia in the [[Chronograph of 354|Calendar of Filocalus]]. Since the Greek word ''phota'' meant both 'man' and 'lights', candles were a substitute offering to Saturn for the light of life.<ref name="Taylor">{{cite journal |last=Taylor |first=Rabun |title=Roman ''Oscilla'': An Assessment |journal=RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics |volume=48 |date=2005 |issue=48 |location=Chicago, Illinois |publisher=The [[University of Chicago Press]] |page=101|doi=10.1086/RESv48n1ms20167679 |jstor=20167679 |s2cid=193568609 }}</ref><ref name="Chance">{{cite book |last=Chance |first=Jane |date=1994 |title=Medieval Mythography: From Roman North Africa to the School of Chartres, A.D. 433–1177 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3J3-0I7YLfoC |location=Gainesville, Florida |publisher=University Press of Florida |isbn=9780813012568 |pages=71–72}}</ref> The figurines that were exchanged as gifts (''[[sigillaria (ancient Rome)|sigillaria]]'') may also have represented token substitutes.<ref>[[Macrobius]], ''Saturnalia'' 1.10.24; Carlin A. Barton, ''The Sorrows of the Ancient Romans: The Gladiator and the Monster'' ([[Princeton University Press]], 1993), p. 166. For another Roman ritual that may represent human sacrifice, see [[Argei]]. ''[[Oscilla]]'' were also part of the [[Feriae Latinae|Latin Festival]] and the [[Compitalia]]: Fowler, ''Roman Festivals'', p. 272.</ref>