On my recent post on the Roman Saturnalia commentator ‘shebardigan’ noted that I had inadvertently confused (or rather, conflated) two very different divinities: Cronus and Chronos. What I said was misleading, and I am grateful for the opportunity to say what I should have said then, with a bit more care and clarity.
Greek and Roman religions lacked canonical scriptures; their mythology is notoriously complex and, to modern eyes, often contradictory. This does not mean that the ancient world was devoid of religious writing; just the opposite, in fact. There was anexcess of religious writing. And of religious images, too. There is so much writing from the ancient world about the gods, in fact, spanning so many centuries, that it is well-nigh impossible to make systematic sense of it all.
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