minor Roman goddess linked to Saturn
Lua
Lua was a minor goddess of Roman religion, associated with Saturn and with the burning of enemy weapons. Very little is known about her, as no images survive and no temples or cults dedicated to her have been found.
The myth
Almost everything known about Lua comes from the historian Livy, who mentions her twice in his Ab Urbe Condita. In the first episode, the Volscians were beaten by the Romans and fled, leaving their dead and a large amount of weapons behind. The consul had the arms gathered and offered them to Lua Mater, "Mother Lua".
In the second, Livy says that weapons taken from the enemy had to be burned as an offering to Mars, Minerva and Lua Mater. Varro and Aulus Gellius linked her directly to Saturn; Gellius compared their bond to those of Salacia and Neptune, or Maia and Vulcan. So Lua Saturni would embody some trait or function of Saturn, though scholars disagree on which one. It has been suggested that she stood for his power to cause sterility, his destructive side, or his link to the sprouting of seed. Dutch classicist H.S. Versnel, connecting her with the Greek verb luō ("to release"), proposes that she freed the grain Saturn had stored underground so that people could use it.
Ancient sources: Livy mentions her twice in his Ab Urbe Condita, and Varro and Aulus Gellius associate her with Saturn.