Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/658

SATURNALIA ents, and banquets, at which a king was chosen whom all must obey. Favorite presents were wax tapers and little clay or pastry images (the sigillaria). In fact, we are told that the days following the 17th, on which these figures were sold, were called the Sigillaria, During this period the courts and schools were closed, and military operations were suspended that the army might celebrate. A special feature of the Saturnalia was the freedom given to the slaves, who even had first place at the family tables and were served by their masters. Later speculation interpreted this as a reminiscence of the Golden Age under King Satarnus. On December 15th occurred the Conseralia, and on December 19th the Opalia, in honor of Consus and Ops, both of whom scem to have been deities connected with the storing of the grain. Later legend identified Ops with the Greek Rhea, and made her the wife of Saturn, thongh it is quite possible that originally she was more closely connected with Consus.

SATURNIAN VERSE (Lat. Saturnius, relating to Saturn, from Saturnus, Saturn). The name given by the Romans to that species of verse in which their oldest poetry was composed. In the usage of the later poets and grammarians the phrase is applied in a general way to denote the rude and unfixed measures of the ancient Latin ballad and song, and is not intended to determine the character of the metre, and it is also applied to the measure used by Nevius. which has been held by many scholars to be an importation from Greece. Saturnian verse continued in use down to the time of Ennius (q.v.), who introduced the hexameter (q.v.). According to Hermann, the basis of the verse is contained in the following schema:

which, as Macaulay happily points out, corresponds exactly to the nursery rhyme.

The queén was in the párlor | éating bréad and hóney.

In the treatment of it a wide and arbitrary freedom was taken by the old Roman poets, as is proved by the still extant fragments of Nevius, Livius Andronicus, Ennius, and of the early epitaphs and inscriptions. Consult: Mommsen. History of Rome, i., chap. xv.; Teutfel-Schwahe-Warr, History of Roman Literature (London. 1891). The slight remains of Saturnian verse will be found in Ritschl. Saturnie Poeseos Reliquie (Bonn, 1854), and the inseriptions only in Buecheler, Anthologia Latina (Leipzig, 1895).

SATURNINUS, Lecius ApcLetvs (?-B.¢. 100). A Romau demagogue, tribune of the people in B.c, 102 and 100. He procured his reélection by the help of Marius and Glaucia, as well as by the murder of his opponent. To this violence and to the alliance with the popular party it is supposed Saturninus was led because of his removal by the senate from the post of questor at Ostia. In the first year of his tribunate he had introduced a Jaw of majestas, by which the old right of trial under the charge of perduellio by a board of two, with right of appeal to the comitia, was superseded. In his suecess Saturninus overstepped the mark by his grain laws, which almost gave away the public corn. He caused the murder of Memmius, who contested Glaucia’s reélection. The popular uprising drove him and Glaucia to the Capitol. They surrendered to Marius, but were killed in the Curia, where Marius had put them for safe-keeping.

SATYR (Lat. Satyrus, from Gk. Zdrupos, Satyros). In Greek mythology. one of the deities or spirits of the woods and hills, usually represented in early art with goat’s ears, tails, and hoofs, often bearded and old, though in later times these bestial traits are much redueed, and scarcely extend beyond the pointed ears, and occasionally a small tail. In the fourth century B.c. we find the graceful youth, whose animal nature is searcely indicated, while in Hellenistic times appears the different type of the rough peasant boy, whose features show plainly his vulgar and mischievous disposition. From Hesiod down they are constant figures in Greek literature as well as art, especially as companions of Dionysus. They appear as sensual pursuers and ravishers of the woodland nymphs, fond of wine, and also of the music of the woods, playing the syrinx, flute, and even the bagpipe. See Furtwängler, Der Satyr aus Pergamon (Berlin, 1880).

SATYR. A member of a subfamily (Satyrinæ) of medium-sized, usually brown or gray butterflies, the wings of which are very generally ornamented, especially on the under sides, by eye-like spots. About sixty species occur in the United States. They are weak fliers and most of them are forest-lovers, although some are found upon the Western prairies. The veins of the fore wings are greatly swollen at the base. The larve are cylindrical and are distinguished from other American butterflies, except those of the genus Chlorippe, by their bifureated anal extremities. They are usually pale green or light brown, and feed upon grasses or sedges, remaining concealed during the day and emerging at dusk to feed. In the tropics the satyrs are often gaily eolored. One very rare species (Œneis semidiæ) is remarkable on aceount of its distribution. It occurs in the United States only on the highest peaks of the White and Rocky Mountains, and is believed to have been a species of wide distribution in glacial times. When the ice broke up, the mass of the buttertlies were exterminated by the encroaching heat. but a few individuals survived in the congenial coolness remaining on the peaks of the highest mountains.

SAUBA ANT (Saiiba, South American Indian name). A neotropical leaf-cutting ant (Œcodoma. cephalotes), which makes very remarkable underground mines. They excavate a series of tunnels and nests which extend through many square yards of earth, and are said to have tunneled under the bed of the River Parahyba at a spot where it was as broad as the Thames at London Bridge. H. W. Bates has shown that in the communities of this ant there are surely five castes—males, females, small ordinary workers, large workers with very large hairy heads, and large workers with large polished heads.

SAUGER, or Sanp-PIKE. A pike-perch (q.v.) of the Great Lakes and the Upper Mississippi tributaries, more elongated and eylindrical than the wall-eyed pike, with a distinet black blotch on the base of the pectoral fin. It is 10 to 18 inches long. This fish is also locally known as ‘gray pike, ‘rattle-snake pike,’ ‘ground pike.’ and ‘hornfish.’ See Plate of PERCHES OF NoRTH AMERICA.