Pierre Brusuire, Ov. Moral. FF. 7-19


Brusuire provides a moralizing account of the Cronus/Saturn myth in multifaceted detail essentially for the benefit of preachers and sermonizers. His treatment of the Cronus myth covers the section "De formis figurisque deorum" (FF). Drawing on the anonymous Ovide moralissé, Pierre goes into often interesting sectors of the myth.


For instance, at FF. 11 he shifts to a euhmeristic mode, stating that Saturn had been an ancient king of Crete who was told by his brother Titan that he would be overthrown by one of his sons. Therefore, this Saturn chose to consume his children, beginning with Juno, Neptune, and Pluto, lest the prophecy be fulfilled. However, yearning for sexual generation, Saturn reasoned that a child he might conceive by another woman than his wife might allow circumvention of the prophecy; he, therefore, raped Cybele and thereby conceived Jupiter.

Saturn's exile to Italy, Pierre continues, resulted in the establishment of agriculture and earned the name SATURNUS, by the false etymology of "saturandum".


Although Pierre's mythological facts are not always "correct" — e.g. that Jupiter castrated Saturn (FF 9) or that "Saturnus significat tempus" as the father or four elements: Jupiter (fire), Juno (air), Neptune (water) and Pluto (earth) — the glimpse into 14th-century reasoning and classical reception is fascinating.