The Star of Shabbat - The Planet Saturn in Hebrew and in Science Fiction Literature

אוקטובר 04, 2025

The Star of Shabbat - The Planet Saturn in Hebrew and in Science Fiction Literature

כוכב השבת -כוכב הלכת שבתאי בשפה העברית ובספרות המדע הבדיוני - המולטי יקום של אלי אשד

Saturn, the seventh planet from the Sun, has been considered particularly significant to the Jewish people throughout history. In this article, we will explore its appearances in Jewish literature and Hebrew-language science fiction.

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By Eli Eshed

Post Date

April 21, 2019

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Fifty-one years have passed since the screening of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, perhaps the greatest science fiction film of all time.In this film, a spacecraft heading to the Jupiter system encounters an alien monolith, and the astronaut aboard embarks on an astonishing journey to the edges of the universe.However, in the book written and published almost concurrently with the film by Arthur C. Clarke, the journey is not to Jupiter but to the Saturn system, where, on Saturn’s moon Iapetus, another astonishing discovery of a "stargate" is made.Only recently, the Cassini spacecraft, sent by NASA and the European Space Agency to explore Saturn and its moons, was launched on October 15, 1997, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. For years, it transmitted remarkable data about the sixth planet, Saturn, and its moons, such as Titan, before crashing into Saturn’s surface on September 15, 2017, after years of faithful service.Here is a review of Saturn as it appears in Hebrew literature, science fiction, and comics, following similar reviews of other planets:

The planet Mercury, known as "Kokhav Hama" (the swift planet), the closest to the Sun.
The planet Venus, known as "Nogah," the "Kingdom of Women," the second planet from the Sun.
Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, in the article "Is Jupiter Just?"
The dwarf planet Pluto and its large moon Charon in the article "The Double Planet."

A future review will cover Mars.Saturn, the Star of the Jewish PeopleSaturn was known to the Babylonians thousands of years ago as a particularly bright and radiant planet, despite its immense distance from Earth. Due to its great brightness, the Babylonians knew in ancient times that it was a planet, albeit a very distant one from the Sun, and distinguished it from bright fixed stars like Sirius and Canopus.It is known that during biblical times, the people of Israel worshipped the planet Saturn.In the biblical period, the planet now called "Shabbatai" (Saturn) had at least two different names, and likely more.The planets Jupiter and Saturn are mentioned in the Bible by their Assyrian-Babylonian names, usually in the context of idolatry and star worship. For example, in Isaiah: "But you who forsake the Lord, who forget My holy mountain, who prepare a table for Gad, and who furnish a drink offering for Meni" (Isaiah 65:11). Gad, mentioned here, is, according to some (though not my opinion), the planet Jupiter, the god of success among the Canaanite peoples. "Meni" is likely the god of fate, identified with one of the planets, in whose honor wine was consumed (a drink offering).In my opinion, the name of the largest planet, Jupiter, in the Kingdom of Judah was "Yahweh," after the primary god of the kingdom, as was customary everywhere. However, the editors of the Bible took care to erase any mention of this.Apart from Venus, known in the Bible as "Hillel ben Shahar," Saturn is the only planet explicitly named in the Bible. In fact, it is given two different names (!), indicating its significance.Saturn’s name in the Bible is Kiyun—as written in Amos: "But you carried Sikuth your king and Kiyun your images, the star of your gods, which you made for yourselves" (Amos 5:26).It is portrayed as a star worshipped by the ancient Israelites during their wanderings in the desert, and presumably in the prophet’s present as well.How do we know that "Kiyun" is Saturn? This cannot be determined from Amos itself or anywhere else in the Bible. We know this because a similar word for the same planet appears in Babylonian records from the Sarpanitum tablets, collected centuries before Amos in Akkad, which include various ancient incantations to different gods. There, "Kayawanu" is mentioned, meaning "the god of the sixth planet from the Sun," more commonly known in Akkadian as Ninurta. However, it also had another name: Sak-kut or "Sikuth Melekh" (Sikuth your king) in full, and was also called "Adar Melekh." Likely, "Sikuth" is another name for Saturn. Thus, this planet had two different names, underscoring its importance at the time.(See more details on this [here].)Ninurta, the God of Saturn in BabylonAdditional names for the seventh planet included Ninurta (Babylonian), Kronos (Greek), Brahma (Indian), and Saturn (Roman Latin), which is still used today. It seems that the second-largest planet in the solar system was always considered by the ancients to be the god that preceded the rise of Jupiter, Zeus, or any other primary god who took control of the gods and the universe—ruling in the past.What Was Saturn Called in Ancient Canaan?According to the 4th-century Christian writer Eusebius, who relied on earlier Phoenician sources, Saturn was called "El" or "Kokhav El" (the Star of El), named after the original ruling god in the Canaanite pantheon.It appears that the Phoenicians, along with the Canaanites (and perhaps the Hebrews), identified Saturn with "El," the chief god who ruled before Baal took over the pantheon of gods, following some religious change whose reasons are now unknown. The planet we now call Jupiter was named after Baal (and likely after the supreme god of Judah, "Yahweh").Could it be that in an earlier period, the largest planet in the solar system, which we now call Jupiter, was named after El when he was the undisputed chief god, and later, after a change, El was given the planet we now know as Saturn as a consolation prize? This is very possible.It is likely that, as was customary elsewhere, the name of this god was originally that of Jupiter. After he was "deposed" from his role in the dominant mythology as the head of the gods (for entirely human reasons, such as conflicts between different priestly orders), he was given, as was traditional for generations, the name of Saturn, the second-largest planet, as a sort of consolation prize for him, his priests, and his devotees.Likely due to its Canaanite-Hebrew name "El," this planet became particularly associated with the Jews in the eyes of the Greeks and Romans. The Roman historian Tacitus claimed that the Jews worshipped Saturn.This sounds strange but is not necessarily incorrect. It is likely that he relied on things he heard that were accepted among Jewish groups, even if they did not necessarily reach us in the Mishnah or Talmud.Saturn, known as Saturnus in Latin, is named after the Sabbath and the number seven, as, along with the Sun and Moon, it was considered the seventh celestial body in the sky. The word "Shabbatai" may be derived from "Shabbat" (Sabbath). As the "Star of Shabbat," it appeared to astronomers to move more slowly than other planets, thus "resting" most of the time.Or perhaps it was the other way around, and the Sabbath was named after "Shabbatai"? This is not impossible.The name of the planet as "Shabbatai" first appears in Genesis Rabbah, likely written in the 5th century CE, but it is older. Some attribute the name, along with "Tzedek" (Jupiter) and other Hebrew names for planets, to Shmuel, a 3rd-century CE Amora known for his great interest in astronomy and astrology.In Hebrew LiteratureThe planet is first mentioned in Hebrew literature by the poet Shlomo Ibn Gabirol in his cosmic poem Keter Malchut (Crown of Royalty):"Who can reach Your loftiness, when You encircle the sphere of Saturn, the eighth sphere in its orbit? / And it bears twelve constellations on the line of its calculated path / And all the stars of the upper heavens are cast in its mold / And each star among them orbits the sphere in thirty-six thousand years due to its great height / And the body of each star is one hundred and seven times the size of the Earth, and this is the extent of its greatness."Ibn SinaSaturn first appears in a world traveled to in the allegorical work Hayy ibn Yaqzan by the Arab writer Ibn Sina:

"And after it, you will come to a kingdom inhabited by a nation whose thoughts are dark, and they are drawn to evil. When they incline to do good, they do so with utmost effort and devotion. And if they attack a troop, they do not pounce on it recklessly like the frivolous, but approach it with the cunning of the deceitful. They do not hasten in what they do, nor rely on impatience in what they act or refrain from. And their cities—seven cities."

(Translation by Israel Levin in Hayy ibn Yaqzan)

In other words, Saturn is the world of cunning and inherently malevolent beings.It is mentioned again by the 12th-century poet, astronomer, and astrologer Abraham Ibn Ezra in his rhymed maqama Hayy ibn Yaqzan, an adaptation and expansion of Ibn Sina’s work, describing the journey of a human soul through the solar system as it was known at the time, visiting the "spheres" of the known planets.Among other things, he describes a visit to the planet Saturn:"And in the seventh kingdom, people of wisdom and cunning—and intelligence and guile—in their deeds they are resolute—and in their steps they linger. They store and keep kindness—and avenge and bear grudges for transgressions. They do not fear calamity—nor are they afraid of wrath. They do not hasten to quarrel or dispute—nor do they rush to reconcile or appease. Among them, the righteous is crushed and subdued—and the wicked rises and exalts."Ibn Ezra was indeed inspired by Ibn Sina, who wrote something similar, but his description of Saturn is more detailed and less allegorical.In the 17th century, the French philosopher Voltaire described in one of the first science fiction stories, Micromégas, a giant from the star Sirius who visits the solar system in search of knowledge and meets a smaller giant from Saturn, who resembles (like Sirius) an exact replica of Paris and the Versailles court of the 17th century. The smaller giant is the secretary of Saturn’s academy, modeled on Fontenelle, the secretary of the French Academy, who wrote a famous book on the possibility of life on other planets, including Saturn, which served as inspiration for Voltaire.The two embark on a journey through the solar system, including to Jupiter. Unfortunately, nothing is said about the planet except that many surprising secrets were learned there, which angered the Inquisition. Voltaire is more interested in detailing their visit to Earth, whose inhabitants are dwarfs in size and spirit by comparison.Jules Verne’s Space AdventureThe most famous 19th-century science fiction writer, Jules Verne, published a particularly far-reaching book, even for him, Hector Servadac, about a group of people whose piece of land is snatched by a comet and taken to the farthest reaches of the solar system, to Saturn, before they return.This book was translated into Hebrew twice, but only in the second, complete translation was the section about the journey to the distant planets, including Saturn, included.The Adventures of Baron MunchausenIn the first Hebrew translation of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Avigdor Hameiri in the 1920s, the Baron visits a planet and discovers that, true to its name, it has an eternal Sabbath, with its inhabitants constantly resting and idling.Later, due to its rare beauty and the splendor of its rings, Saturn became one of the most recognizable objects in science fiction illustrations, such as those by the famous science fiction illustrator Frank R. Paul:

Back cover art by Frank R. Paul for November 1939, Fantastic Adventure Magazine, "Life on Saturn."
Back cover by Frank R. Paul of Amazing Stories, August 1941.

Here is an example of an "educational" comic story about life on Saturn from the 1940s, drawn by the future renowned comic artist Murphy Anderson, who also illustrated Buck Rogers stories:

From Planet Comics #49 (1947); Art by Murphy Anderson.

Eli Sagi, in his Captain Yuno adventure series, mentions in the third book, The Adventures of Captain Yuno and the Pirates of the Solar System, the eternal beings of Saturn on the planet Jupiter, but unfortunately, apart from this single piece of information, nothing is known about them.In the final book of his Lucky Starr series, Lucky Starr and the Rings of Saturn, Isaac Asimov describes Saturn in an extraordinary way.Asimov portrays a distant future where Earth is at odds with worlds in other star systems settled by former Earth inhabitants who have become enemies. The plot of this, the most successful book in the Lucky Starr series, intended for young adults, describes how agents of Earth’s main enemy, Sirius, infiltrate the Saturn system to settle on its large moon Titan against Earth’s wishes, thereby establishing a foothold in the solar system.The galactic legal principle until then was that each solar system belonged to a single central authority, but the people of Sirius challenge this principle, claiming that every planet in any solar system can be an independent entity.During the plot, we learn to our astonishment that, despite the rapid discovery of faster-than-light travel and the colonization of dozens of planets across the galaxy by former Earth inhabitants over generations, Saturn itself, a "nearby" planet in our solar system, has seen almost no missions for centuries! As the people of Sirius rightly point out in the story, it garnered no interest from Earth until they arrived. They lose their case due to a grave error they made during the plot, but their argument is highly logical.A German edition of Lucky Starr and the Rings of Saturn. The cover image later appeared in the Israeli science fiction series Ral Dark, Rebellion on Venus, though the story has no connection to the image or Saturn. The choice of cover image seems entirely random.Flash Gordon, the space hero, visited Saturn in the thrilling 1962 comic The Conquerors of Space, written by Harry Harrison (available to read on Yekum Tarbut [here]), in which Earthlings arrive to explore Saturn and encounter a particularly dangerous envoy from the planet, reminiscent of the Alien from the famous horror film years later. Saturn’s creatures have pointed ears.Could this be the inspiration for the pointed ears of the Vulcan Mr. Spock in the Star Trek TV series, created shortly after this story was published? It’s very possible. Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, read Flash Gordon stories and likely encountered this one.Arthur C. Clarke described the first journey to Saturn and its moons in his story Saturn Rising (available to read on Yekum Tarbut), where a tourism site is established for locals due to the stunning view of the rings.As mentioned, Clarke returned to Saturn in his famous novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, where the Discovery spacecraft’s journey is to the Saturn system. In the film, however, the journey is to Jupiter due to technical difficulties for the special effects team in convincingly depicting Saturn’s rings. Nonetheless, Saturn is explicitly mentioned in the book, published almost concurrently with the film, as the true destination of the Discovery and its crew.Saturn’s moon system, particularly its largest moon, Titan, "stars" again in Clarke’s Imperial Earth (1975, translated by Amos Geffen, Masada Publishing, 1979), which describes a human colony on Titan in 2276, three hundred years after the book’s publication.Asimov’s Article on SaturnIn 1979, Isaac Asimov wrote an article titled Only Thirty Years about the developments in planetary research over the thirty years since he wrote his Lucky Starr books.Regarding Saturn and its moons, he wrote:"So far, no spacecraft has reached Saturn, so our information about it is not much different from what we had in 1949, except that we can assume that what we learned about Jupiter also applies to Saturn.In 1949, nine satellites orbiting Saturn were known. However, in 1967, Audouin Dollfus discovered a tenth satellite, which he named Janus. It orbits Saturn in a path closer than all other moons, passing just outside its magnificent rings. (Of course, I did not mention Janus in my book Lucky Starr and the Rings of Saturn.)Only thirty years! What will the next thirty years reveal?"The Fantasia 2000 system noted: "Indeed, science is advancing rapidly. Asimov wrote his article in August, a month before the Pioneer 10 spacecraft reached Saturn and sent a series of surprisingly clear images."Since then, forty years have passed, and, of course, dramatic discoveries about Saturn have been made. As of 2017, 62 moons have been definitively identified (!), with fifty-three of them named.Asimov returned to Saturn in his Universe series for children, partially translated into Hebrew. In the book Saturn: A Ring of Beauty (Tel Aviv: Lilach, 1989), he described Saturn as the most beautiful world in the solar system.Saturn continues to appear regularly in English-language science fiction, such as in Ben Bova’s Saturn, which describes the first journey to it.However, Saturn has rarely appeared in translated science fiction books, with one notable exception: Accelerando by Charles Stross (translated by Ehud Maimon, edited by Hamutal Levin, Yaniv Publishing, 2011), in which post-singularity humans build new lives in the Saturn system, which undergoes "terraforming."It seems that interest in Saturn has waned, and one can hope that Asimov’s "prophecy" in Lucky Starr and the Rings of Saturn—that after one or two missions to the Saturn system, humans would ignore it in favor of distant stars—will not come true. There is much to see and do in Saturn and its vast moon system.See Also:

Saturn and Hebrew Poetry
Saturn on Wikipedia
Haim Mazar on the Cassini Spacecraft in the Saturn System - an article on Yekum Tarbut
Article on the Origin of the Name of the Star Saturn

More Planets in Hebrew and Fictional Literature

The Swift Planet - Mercury in Hebrew and Fictional Literature
The Planet Venus, the "Kingdom of Women," the Second Planet from the Sun
Is Jupiter Just? - The Planet Jupiter in Hebrew and Fictional Literature
The Double Planet: The Dwarf Planet Pluto and Its Moon Charon in Science Fiction Literature

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The Star of Shabbat - The Planet Saturn in Hebrew and in Science Fiction Literature

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