Like Jupiter/Zeus, Saturn/Cronus has a multitude of satellites. However, we will consider only a few:

• Titan
• Tethys
• Dione
• Rhea
• Iapetus
• Mimas
• Enceladus
• Phoebe
• Janus
• Epimetheus

Let’s start with Titan, both as a moon, and as a myth.

Titan: the Moon

Titan is big; only Ganymede (which we explored among the moons of Jupiter) is bigger. Titan would be considered a planet if it wasn’t orbiting Saturn.

Is it wet (which is the framework for all known carbon-based life-forms)?

Yup, Titan is wet, though the water appears to be hiding under frozen sheaths.

Could we live there?

Maybe…

Could there be life on Titan?

Time to go looking.

Titans: the Myth:

Titan doesn’t refer to an individual; the Titans were the primordial gods.

Before Zeus, before the Olympians that he helped liberate from his father Saturn/Kronos, there were the Titans.

Twelve primal Titans:

Oceanus and Tethys, Hyperion and Theia, Coeus and Phoebe, Cronus and Rhea, Mnemosyne, Themis, Crius, Iapetus.

Each deserves their own hard-won story. They ended up going to war with their children, the Olympians led by Zeus, called the Titanomachy. They lost, tragically.

Some survived, such as Prometheus; his story, which also ends tragically, will wait for another day.

We’ve seen some of the survivors before: for instance, Mnemosyne, mother of the Muses, goddess of memory.

Still, no matter how the story is told, it didn’t end well for the Titans.

Or old Cronus/Saturn himself.

Not that the Olympians proved to be any kinder to us mere mortals.

Gods tend to be like that.

That’s how gods roll. Moons too.

Stay tuned in, because there are many more gods and moons a’coming.

And as for the moon called Titan…it might be our next home.

Until then, see you on Earth.