Jupiter the patriarch, as the first modernist and separator of powers

If we start with the fact that man has always existed, especially intelligent man, he has always been distinguished from other animals and other species of humans by the fact that he has the ability to create myths.

Every nation and every era has its own legend, no matter what it is, but man has not lived without legend. It is perhaps no exaggeration to say that among the history of mythology and legends among nations, the mythology and legends of “Greco-Roman” are among the most beautiful and unique legends of nations.

One of the most unique and philosophical myths in Greco-Roman mythology is the myth of the boyhood of Saturn and Jupiter (whose names become Cronus and Zeus in Greek). Let’s find this story.

Through this myth, we will try to analyze the separation of powers and then try to read the closure of the Kurdistan Parliament in

The legend begins as follows and tells us the story between this father and son:

Saturn (Cronos), was a powerful titan, and ruler of the world. There was a prophecy that one of her children would lose her power, so she decided to eat all of her children. This act caused deep sorrow to his wife, Ops (Reya).

When Ops was Jubiter (Zeus), he drew up a map. In place of the child, a stone wrapped in Mother Saturn’s cloth. Ops secretly took Jupiter to the island of Crete, where he was raised under the care of fairies and on the milk of a goat named Amaltia.

When Jubiter matured, he returned to fight his father. A great war, known as the War of the Titans, lasted for ten years. In this war, nature was disturbed – the sky and the earth quaked, the seas were distorted and the mountains collapsed.

In the end, Jupiter won. He put Saturn and the other Titans in a deep, dark prison called Tartarus. With the help of the wise Mitis, Jupiter made Saturn bring back all the other children he had devoured, and so his brothers and sisters were set free.

After the victory, the world was divided between three brothers: Jupiter became king of the sky, Neptune became ruler of the seas, and Pluto ruled the underworld. The earth became the common place of all the gods.

This legendary story, part of Greek and Roman mythology, tells of the change of power between the generations of the gods and explains how a new system of rule was established in the world of the gods. From Greek and Roman mythology to the present, the issue of infanticide has had its own place in literature and has been told in different ways, most of which revolve around the defense of power.

But what is important for us here is the issue of patriarchy and the division of powers in this myth.

In the story of Saturn and Jupiter, what is interesting and questionable is why Saturn is heartworm and suspicious. What is the sword in Saturn’s heart that tells him that one day one of his children will take this throne from him?

Of course, those with more or less knowledge of Greek and Roman mythology know that Saturn himself had previously taken this power from his father (Uranus), so what is clear here is that the reason for Saturn’s heartache is that he had done the same.

Saturn also holds all power in his hands and does not divide power, which may be another reason for Saturn’s suspicion. Because once power is concentrated in one place, all attention and all attacks will be directed to that place.

Above all, however, comes the position of the father. Because of his position in the family, the father has always been the first authority, and has always tried to maintain this authority. In contrast, the son has always looked to his father’s authority.

Thus, in general, there has been a war between fathers and sons in history, whether openly or secretly, for power. Based on these facts, Saturn has always been afraid of losing his power and his children.

Hence, if we look at the myth from the perspective of the political system, we can compare the difference between Saturn and Jupiter to the difference between the pre-modern and modern political systems.

We know that in pre-modern times, the political system was often similar to the family system in which power was concentrated in the hands of one person (the father), whether he was king or emperor or caliph . . . . That is, the whole state or empire was reduced to one person, because power was with one person.

However, with the modern era and the emergence of liberal-democratic systems, the separation of powers came into being, first theorized by John Locke and later developed by Montesquieu.

The theory is that each of the powers should be separated from each other and divided into each of the powers (legislative, judicial, executive). Moreover, each of these powers must oversee each other, and power must not remain in the hands of one person. Thus, one of the major differences between modern and pre-modern systems is that modern divides and separates powers, unlike pre-modern systems that concentrate in one hand (except for the Athenian democracy).

From this perspective, Jupiter is the first modernist and division of power, and the war he wages with his father is actually a war for the establishment of a modern system.

Because in this myth, Saturn represents the (pre-modern democratic) system, which appears more as a king or chieftain, with power all his own, and a monopoly for himself. This is a traditional form of rule, where the power falters and often collapses as the ruler disappears. In addition, Saturn defends his fatherly position as the ruler and the rightful owner of his subjects and children, that is, as someone whose life is subject to everyone.

In contrast, Jupiter represents another type of system, closer to modern democracy, because when Jupiter kills his father, he divides power among his brothers and sisters and does not monopolize everything. This act will be the first attempt to divide and separate powers.

Jupiter is willing to commit patricide for this purpose, and he does so, making him the first modernist.

In fact, the act of patriarchy is an act and a metaphor that is always present if the new generation wants to uproot the system, so Jupiter carries a new kind of imagination for life. We must remember that there is no change in a system unless the fathers of that system are killed in the first place. If one father is killed, another father must take his place.

In Kurdish politics, the act of patricide is an act that is not seen or difficult to see in our history. But we can see the only serious and similar attempt in 2015 when the then speaker of parliament tried to take power back from the then president because he had lost his legitimacy.

This attempt by the then Speaker of Parliament is similar to Jupiter’s attempt to kill his father Saturn. Although the then speaker of parliament fails in this attempt, and the father remains in place with his absolute power, it is an attempt similar to that of Jupiter.

If we go back to the events of that time, we can see that there is a war between two worldviews.

One is a parliamentary worldview (which I call the Jupiter worldview) that wants to separate and divide powers and try to make powers real rather than formal, and wants to establish a modern democratic system. This was led by the Speaker of Parliament, who played the same role as Jupiter.

The other side had a traditional paternal worldview (which we call the Saturn worldview), which wanted the father to remain anyway because they considered his disappearance to be the disappearance of the region (this is a pre-modern tribal worldview). The chief shall have the same status as the tribal nobleman. This aspect was the then president of the progressive region, who played the role of Saturn.

At the end of this conflict, Jupiter will not succeed and Saturn will eat and swallow our Jupiter, thus defeating Jupiter’s worldview (parliamentary and division of powers) and the worldview and system (nobility-tribal) will succeed.

There are many reasons why Jupiter’s attempt to assassinate the father failed, but the most important was that the father had to be killed in society and the family before attempting to assassinate the father in the political sphere.

Because he represented not only himself and his powers, but also all the fathers of his society who were at war with the boys.

The then speaker of parliament and his movement only believed that by changing the political sphere, the social and cultural sphere would become problem-free or change, so they only tried to change the political sphere. While this step required not to be separated from the social and cultural spheres and changes to start there and reach the political sphere.

Because it is impossible and wrong to separate the social and cultural spheres from the political sphere and try to change one without the other (the Gorran Movement made this mistake, which shortened the process of change in the political sphere).

Therefore, any change in the political sphere must be based on social change and stem from it, otherwise it will fail.

Despite all this, the attempt of the then speaker of parliament is one of the most important and unique attempts in our political history to kill the father. Even if it had succeeded, it would have put our society and our history on a much different level than it is now.

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For this article, we have used Mr. Bakhtiar Ali’s Children of Saturn and Ovid’s Metamorphosis.