god
Saturn
also: Saturn, Saturnus
Roman god of time, harvest, and melancholy; also the planet associated in medieval astrology with gloom, slowness, and fate. In Trakl's Despondency (section 37), Saturn silently steers a wretched fate overhead — the speaker is literally under Saturn's malign influence.
Reading notes
- Poems §21 Saturn
Saturn was the Roman god of time and agriculture, identified with the Greek Kronos; his astrological influence was associated in Renaissance and Romantic tradition with melancholy, slowness, and the temperament of the artist-genius. Trakl's Saturn stands for inescapable melancholy.