In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus ( ; ) is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways,Varro apud Augustine De Civitate Dei VII 9 and 3; Servius Aen. I 449; Paulus ex Festus s. v. Chaos p. 45 L passages, frames, and endings. He is usually depicted as having a two-faced head. The month of January is named for Janus (Ianuarius).Forsythe, Time in Roman Religion, p. 14. According to ancient Roman farmers' almanacs, Juno was mistaken as the tutelary deity of the month of January,H.H. Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic (Cornell University Press, 1981), p. 51. as Juno is the tutelary deity of the month of June.
Janus presided over the beginning and ending of conflict, and hence war and peace. The gates of the Temple of Janus in Rome were opened in time of war and closed to mark the arrival of peace. As a god of transitions, he had functions pertaining to birth and to journeys and exchange, and in his association with Portunus, a similar harbor and gateway god, he was concerned with travelling, trading, and shipping.
Janus had no flamen or specialised priest (sacerdos) assigned to him, but the King of the Sacred Rites (rex sacrorum) himself carried out his ceremonies. Janus had a ubiquitous presence in religious ceremonies throughout the year. As such, Janus was ritually invoked at the beginning of each ceremony, regardless of the main deity honored on any particular occasion.
While the ancient Greeks had no known equivalent to Janus, there is considerable overlap with Culśanś of the Etruscan pantheon.
Etymology The name of the god Iānus, meaning in Latin 'arched passage, doorway', stems from Proto-Italic *iānu ('door'), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ieh₂nu ('passage'). It is cognate with Sanskrit yāti ('to go, travel'), Lithuanian jóti ('to go, ride'), Irish áth ('ford'), or Serbo-Croatian jàhati ('to ride').Taylor, Rabun, "Watching the Skies: Janus, Auspication, and the Shrine in the Roman Forum," Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome vol. 45 (2000): p. 1.
Iānus would then be an action name expressing the idea of going, passing, formed on the root *yā- < *y-eð2- theme II of the root *ey- go from which eō, ειμι.Objections by A. Meillet and A. Ernout to this etymology have been rejected by most French scholars: É. Benveniste, R. Schilling, G. Dumezil, G. Capdeville. The enlargement of root *ey- into *ya- is well represented in Western Indo-European, as e. g. in Irish āth ,*yā-tu-s ford: cf. J Pokorny Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch I Berne-Munich 1959 p. 296 s. v. i̯ā and Thesaurus Linguae Latinae s. v. ianus. Other modern scholars object to an Indo-European etymology either from Dianus or from root *yā-.A. Meillet DELL s.v. Ianus; A. Ernout "Consus, Ianus, Sancus" in Philologica II 1957 p. 175: Ernout takes into consideration the legends of the Thessalic origin of Janus too.
From Ianus derived ianua ("door"),F. Altheim History of Roman Religion London 1938 p. 194; V. Basanoff Les dieux des Romains Paris 1942 p. 18. and hence the English word "janitor" (Latin, ianitor).
Ancient interpretations Three etymologies were proposed by ancient erudites, each of them bearing implications about the nature of the god.G. Capdeville "Les épithètes cultuelles de Janus" in MEFRA 85 2 1973 p . 399. The first one is based on the definition of Chaos given by Paul the Deacon: hiantem, hiare, "be open", from which the word Ianus would derive by the loss of the initial aspirate. In this etymology, the notion of Chaos would define the primordial nature of the god.Paulus above : "Chaos appellabat Hesiodus confusam quondam ab initio unitatem, hiantem patentemque in profundum. Ex eo et χάσκειν Graeci, et nos hiare dicimus. Unde Ianus detracta aspiratione nominatur id, quod fuerit omnium primum; cui primo supplicabant velut parenti, et a quo rerum omnium factum putabant initium". Hesiod only reads (Theogonia 116): "Ή τοι μεν πρώτιστα Χάος γένετο..."; cfr. also Ovid Fasti I 103 ff.An association of the god to the Greek concept of Chaos is considered contrived by G. Capdeville, as the initial function of Janus would suffice to explain his place at the origin of time. See: G. Capdeville "Les épithètes cultuels de Janus" in Mélanges de l'École française de Rome, (Antiquité) 85 2 1973 p. 399-400; Capdeville mentions also Varro apud Augustine, De Civitate Dei VII 8, who uses the word hiatus to explain the assimilation of Janus to the world : "Duas eum facies ante et retro habere dicunt, quod hiatus noster, cum os aperimus, mundus similis videatur; unde et palatum Graeci ουρανόν appellant, et nonnulli, inquit, poetae Latini caelum vocaverunt palatum, a quo hiatu oris et fores esse aditum ad dentes versus introrsus ad fauces". Ianus would be the gap (hiatus) through which the sky, represented as the dome of the palate, is manifest: the first meaning of palatum was sky. Capdeville finds a reminiscence of the same etymology also in Valerius Messala augur's definition, apud Macrobius Saturnalia I 9, 14, that sounds as somehow related to Paulus's: "He who makes and rules everything, keeping together with the force of the allcovering heaven the heavy nature of earth and water collapsing into the deep with the light nature of fire and wind escaping into the boundless high."
Another etymology proposed by Nigidius Figulus is related by Macrobius:Macrobius above I 9,8. Ianus would be Apollo and Diana Iana, by the addition of a D for the sake of euphony. This explanation has been accepted by A. B. Cook and J. G. Frazer. It supports all the assimilations of Janus to the bright sky, the Sun and the Moon. It supposes a former *Dianus, formed on *dia- < *dy-eð2 from the Indo-European root *dey- shine represented in Latin by dies day, Diovis and Iuppiter.A. B. Cook Zeus. A Study in Ancient Religion Cambridge 1925 II p. 338-9 supposes two parallel series *Divianus, *Dianus, Ianus and Diviana (Varro Lingua Latina V 68), Diana, Iana (Varro De Re Rustica I 37, 3). This interpretation encounters the difficulty of the long i in Dīāna. G. Radke Die Götter Altitaliens Münster 1965 p. 147. The form Dianus postulated by Nigidius, however, is not attested.
A third etymology indicated by Cicero, Ovid and Macrobius, which explains the name as Latin, deriving it from the verb ire ("to go") is based on the interpretation of Janus as the god of beginnings and transitions.Ovid Fasti I 126-7; Macrobius, Saturnalia, I, 9, 11: "Alii mundum, id est caelum, esse voluerunt: Ianumque ab eundo dictum, quod mundum semper eat, dum in orbem volvitur et ex se initium faciens in se refertur: unde et Cornificius Etymorum libro tertio: Cicero, inquit, non-Ianum sed Eanum nominat, ab eundo." It should be observed that Cornificius's quotation from Cicero contains a mistake, as Cicero did not name a Eanum; Cicero De Natura Deorum II 67: "Cumque in omnibus rebus vim habent maxumam prima et extrema, principem in sacrificando Ianum esse voluerunt, quod ab eundo nomen est ductum, ex quo transitiones perviae iani foresque in liminibus profanarum aedium ianuae nominantur"." "As in everything the first and the last things have the greatest force, they wanted that Janus be the first in sacrificial actions, because his name is derived from going, from which fact previous passages are named iani and the hollows in the boundary of secular houses ianuae."
Theology and functions
While the fundamental nature of Janus is debated, in most modern scholars' view the god's functions may be seen as being organised around a single principle: presiding over all beginnings and transitions, whether abstract or concrete, sacred or profane.Among these: C. Bailey; M. Renard; R. Schilling; G. Dumezil; G. Capdeville. Interpretations concerning the god's fundamental nature either limit it to this general function or emphasize a concrete or particular aspect of it (identifying him with light,L. Preller-H. Jordan, Römische Mythologie, vol. I (Berlin, 1881), pp. 166–184. the Sun,A. Schwegler, Römische Geschichte I Tübingen 1867 2nd p. 218-223; A. Brelich, "Vesta:Janus und Vesta" in Albae Vigiliae (Zurich, 1949), p. 28 ff. esp. pp. 34 and 39; R. Pettazzoni, "Per l'iconografia di Giano", Studi Etruschi 24 (1955–56), pp. 79–90 esp. p. 89. the Moon,L. A. MacKay, "Janus", University of California Publications in Classical Philology 15/4 (1956), pp. 157–182. time,J. S. Speÿer, "Le dieu romain Janus", Revue de l'histoire des religions 26 (1892), pp. 1–47 esp. p. 43. movement,M. Renard, "Aspects anciens de Janus et de Junon", Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire 31/1 (1953), pp. 5–21 esp. p.6. the year,O. Huth, Janus. Ein Beitrag zur altrömischen Religionsgeschichte (Bonn, 1932). doorways,W. H. Roscher, Ausfürliches Lexicon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie, vol. II (1890–1894) col. 15–55 s. v. Ianus; P. Grimal, "Le dieu Janus et les origines de Rome", Lettres d'humanité 4 (1945) pp. 15–121: Janus would be a conflation of the Latin numen of the mystic Gate of Rome with a Syrian-Hittite sky god brought to Italy by the Etruscans; C. Bailey, Phases in the Religion of Ancient Rome (Berkeley, 1932), pp. 46–47: Janus would have developed from the animistic spirit of the door, ianua. bridges,L. A. Holland, "Janus and the Bridge", Papers and Monographs of the American Academy in Rome 21 (1961), pp. 231–3. etc.) or else see in the god a sort of cosmological principle, interpreting him as a uranic deity.J. S. Speÿer above esp. p. 44; A. B. Cook, Zeus: A study in ancient religion, vol. II (Cambridge, 1925), pp. 328–392; P. Grimal, "Le dieu Janus et les origines de Rome", Lettres d'humanité 4 (1945), pp. 15–121 esp. p. 118.
Almost all of these modern explanations were originally formulated by the ancients.R. Schilling above p. 102 cites Lydus De Mensibus IV 2 who states that according to Varro the Etruscans called him Heaven; Augustine De Civitate Dei VII 7 identifies him with the world; Longinus and Messala, cited by Lydus above IV 1, with time; Gavius Bassus with air and Hera (apud Lydus above IV 2).
God of beginnings and passages