Janus

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').

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. Other modern scholars object to an Indo-European etymology either from Dianus or from root *yā-.

From Ianus derived ianua ("door"), 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. 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.

Another etymology proposed by Nigidius Figulus is related by Macrobius: 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. 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.

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. 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, the Sun, the Moon, time, movement, the year, doorways, bridges, etc.) or else see in the god a sort of cosmological principle, interpreting him as a uranic deity.

Almost all of these modern explanations were originally formulated by the ancients.

God of beginnings and passages

His function as god of beginnings has been clearly expressed in numerous ancient sources, among them most notably Cicero, Ovid, and Varro. As a god of motion, Janus looks after passages, causes actions to start and presides over all beginnings. Since movement and change are interconnected, he has a double nature, symbolised in his two-headed image. He has under his tutelage the stepping in and out of the door of homes, the ianua, which took its name from him, and not vice versa. Similarly, his tutelage extends to the covered passages named iani and foremost to the gates of the city, including the cultic gate of the Argiletum, named Ianus Geminus or Porta Ianualis from which he protects Rome against the Sabines. He is also present at the Sororium Tigillum, where he guards the terminus of the ways into Rome from Latium. He has an altar, later a temple near the Porta Carmentalis, where the road leading to Veii ended, as well as being present on the Janiculum, a gateway from Rome out to Etruria.

The connection of the notions of beginning (principium), movement, transition (eundo), and thence time was clearly expressed by Cicero. In general, Janus is at the origin of time as the guardian of the gates of Heaven: Jupiter himself can move forth and back because of Janus's working. In one of his temples, probably that of Forum Holitorium, the hands of his statue were positioned to signify the number 355 (the number of days in a lunar year), later 365, symbolically expressing his mastership over time. He presides over the concrete and abstract beginnings of the world, such as religion and the gods themselves, he too holds the access to Heaven and to other gods: this is the reason why men must invoke him first, regardless of the god they want to pray to or placate. He is the initiator of human life, of new historical ages, and financial enterprises: according to myth he was the first to mint coins and the as, first coin of the liberal series, bears his effigy on one face.

God of change

Janus frequently symbolized change and transitions such as the progress of past to future, from one condition to another, from one vision to another, and young people's growth to adulthood. He represented time because he could see into the past with one face and into the future with the other. Hence, Janus was worshipped at the beginnings of the harvest and planting times, as well as at marriages, deaths and other beginnings. He represented the middle ground between barbarism and civilization, rural and urban space, youth and adulthood. Having jurisdiction over beginnings Janus had an intrinsic association with omens and auspices.

Demi-god or a king reformator

Plutarch in his Parallel Lives mention that Numa Pompilius made January the first month in the calendar instead of March by the next reason: "he wished in every case that martial influences should yield precedence to civil and political. For this Janus, in remote antiquity, whether he was a demi-god or a king, was a patron of civil and social order, and is said to have lifted human life out of its bestial and savage state. For this reason he is represented with two faces, implying that he brought men's lives out of one sort and condition into another."

Position in the pantheon

Leonhard Schmitz suggests that he was likely the most important god in the Roman archaic pantheon. He was often invoked together with Iuppiter (Jupiter).

In several of his works, G. Dumézil proposed the existence of a structural difference in level between the Proto-Indo-European gods of beginning and ending, and the other gods whom Dumézil postulated fall into a tripartite structure, reflecting the most ancient organization of society. So in IE religions there is an introducer god (such as Vedic Vâyu and Roman Janus) and a god of ending, and a nurturer goddess who is often also a fire spirit (such as Roman Vesta, Vedic Saraswati and Agni, Avestic Armaiti and Anâitâ) who show a sort of mutual solidarity.

The concept of 'god of ending' is defined in connection to the human point of reference, i.e. the current situation of man in the universe, and not to endings as transitions into new circumstances, which are under the jurisdiction of the gods of beginning, owing to the ambivalent nature of the concept. Thus the god of beginning is not structurally reducible to a sovereign god, nor the goddess of ending to any of the three categories on to which Dumézil distributed goddesses. There is though a greater degree of fuzziness concerning the function and role of goddesses, which may have formed a preexisting structure allowing the absorption of the local Mediterranean mother goddesses, nurturers, and protectresses .

As a consequence, the position of the gods of beginning would not be the issue of a diachronic process of debasement undergone by a supreme sky god, but rather a structural feature inherent to the culture's theology. The descent of primordial sky gods into the condition of deus otiosus is a well-known phenomenon in many religions.

Dumézil himself observed and discussed in many of his works the phenomenon of the fall of archaic celestial deities in numerous societies of ethnologic interest.

Mircea Eliade evaluated Dumezil's views (1946) positively, and recommended their use in comparative research on Indo-European religions.

According to Macrobius who cites Nigidius Figulus and Cicero, Janus and Jana (Diana) are a pair of divinities, worshipped as Apollo or the sun and moon, whence Janus received sacrifices before all the others, because through him is apparent the way of access to the desired deity.

Temples

Numa built the Ianus geminus (also Janus Bifrons, Janus Quirinus or Portae Belli), a passage ritually opened at times of war, and shut again when Roman arms rested. It formed a walled enclosure with gates at each end, situated between the old Roman Forum and that of Julius Caesar, which had been consecrated by Numa Pompilius himself. About the exact location and aspect of the temple there has been much debate among scholars. In wartime the gates of the Janus were opened, and in its interior sacrifices and vaticinia were held, to forecast the outcome of military deeds. The doors were closed only during peacetime, an extremely rare event. The function of the Ianus Geminus was supposed to be a sort of good omen: in time of peace it was said to close the wars within or to keep peace inside; in times of war it was said to be open to allow the return of the people on duty.

A temple of Janus is said to have been consecrated by the consul Gaius Duilius in 260 BC after the Battle of Mylae in the Forum Holitorium. It contained a statue of the god with the right hand showing the number 300 and the left the number 65—i.e., the length in days of the solar year—and twelve altars, one for each month.

The four-sided structure known as the Arch of Janus in the Forum Transitorium dates from the 1st century of the Christian era: according to common opinion it was built by the Emperor Domitian. However American scholars L. Ross Taylor and L. Adams Holland on the grounds of a passage of Statius maintain that it was an earlier structure (tradition has it the Ianus Quadrifrons was brought to Rome from Falerii) and that Domitian only surrounded it with his new forum. In fact the building of the Forum Transitorium was completed and inaugurated by Nerva in AD 96.

Cult epithets

Another way of investigating the complex nature of Janus is by systematically analysing his cultic epithets: religious documents may preserve a notion of a deity's theology more accurately than other literary sources.

The main sources of Janus's cult epithets are the fragments of the Carmen Saliare preserved by Varro in his work De Lingua Latina, a list preserved in a passage of Macrobius's Saturnalia (I 9, 15–16), another in a passage of Johannes Lydus's De Mensibus (IV 1), a list in Cedrenus's Historiarum Compendium (I p. 295 7 Bonn), partly dependent on Lydus's, and one in Servius Honoratus's commentary to the Aeneis (VII 610). Literary works also preserve some of Janus's cult epithets, such as Ovid's long passage of the Fasti devoted to Janus at the beginning of Book I (89–293), Tertullian, Augustine and Arnobius.

Carmen Saliare

As may be expected the opening verses of the Carmen, are devoted to honouring Janus, thence were named versus ianuli. Paul the Deacon mentions the versus ianuli, iovii, iunonii, minervii. Only part of the versus ianuli and two of the iovii are preserved.

The manuscript has:

(paragraph 26): "cozeulodorieso. omia ũo adpatula coemisse./ ian cusianes duonus ceruses. dun; ianusue uet põmelios eum recum";

(paragraph 27): "diuum êpta cante diuum deo supplicante." "ianitos".

Many reconstructions have been proposed:

they vary widely in dubious points and are all tentative, nonetheless one can identify with certainty some epithets:

Cozeiuod orieso. Omnia vortitod Patulti; oenus es

iancus (or ianeus), Iane, es, duonus Cerus es, duonus Ianus.

Veniet potissimum melios eum recum.

Diuum eum patrem (or partem) cante, diuum deo supplicate.

ianitos.

The epithets that can be identified are:

Cozeuios

i.e. Conseuius the Sower, which opens the carmen and is attested as an old form of Consivius in Tertullian;

Patultius

the Opener;

Iancus or Ianeus

Other sources

The above-mentioned sources give: Ianus Geminus, I. Pater, I. Iunonius, I. Consivius, I. Quirinus, I. Patulcius and Clusivius (Macrobius above I 9, 15): Ι. Κονσίβιον, Ι. Κήνουλον, Ι. Κιβουλλιον, I. Πατρίκιον, I. Κλουσίβιον, I. Ιουνώνιον, I. Κυρινον, I. Πατούλκιον, I. Κλούσιον, I. Κουριάτιον (Lydus above IV 1); I. Κιβούλλιον, I. Κυρινον, I. Κονσαιον, I. Πατρίκιον (Cedrenus Historiarum Compendium I p. 295 7 Bonn); I. Clusiuius, I. Patulcius, I. Iunonius, I. Quirinus (Servius Aen. VII 610).

Even though the lists overlap to a certain extent (five epithets are common to Macrobius's and Lydus's list), the explanations of the epithets differ remarkably. Macrobius's list and explanation are probably based directly on Cornelius Labeo's work, as he cites this author often in his Saturnalia, as when he gives a list of Maia's cult epithets and mentions one of his works, Fasti. In relating Janus's epithets Macrobius states: "We invoke in the sacred rites". Labeo himself, as it is stated in the passage on Maia, read them in the lists of indigitamenta of the libri pontificum. On the other hand, Lydus's authority cannot have consulted these documents precisely because he offers different (and sometimes bizarre) explanations for the common epithets: it seems likely he received a list with no interpretations appended and his interpretations are only his own.

Pater is perhaps the most frequent epithet of Janus, found also in the composition Ianuspater. While numerous gods share this cultic epithet it seems the Romans felt it was typically pertinent to Janus. When invoked along with other gods, usually only he is called pater. For Janus the title is not just a term of respect; principally it marks his primordial role. He is the first of the gods and thus their father: the formula quasi deorum deum corresponds to diuum deus of the carmen Saliare. Similarly, in the expression duonus Cerus, Cerus means creator and is considered a masculine form related to Ceres.

Lydus gives Πατρίκιος (Patricius) and explains it as autóchthon: since he does not give another epithet corresponding to Pater it may be inferred that Lydus understands Patricius as a synonym of Pater. There is no evidence connecting Janus to gentilician cults or identifying him as a national god particularly venerated by the oldest patrician families.

Geminus is the first epithet in Macrobius's list. Although the etymology of the word is unclear, it is certainly related to his most typical character, that of having two faces or heads. The proof are the numerous equivalent expressions. The origin of this epithet might be either concrete, referring directly to the image of the god reproduced on coins and supposed to have been introduced by king Numa in the sanctuary at the lowest point of the Argiletum, or to a feature of the Ianus of the Porta Belli, the double gate ritually opened at the beginning of wars, or abstract, deriving metaphorically from the liminal, intermediary functions of the god themselves: both in time and space passages connected two different spheres, realms or worlds. The Janus quadrifrons or quadriformis, brought according to tradition from Falerii in 241 BC and installed by Domitian in the Forum Transitorium, although having a different meaning, seems to be connected to the same theological complex, as its image purports an ability to rule over every direction, element and time of the year. It did not give rise to a new epithet though.

Rites

The rites concerning Janus were numerous. Owing to the versatile and far reaching character of his basic function marking all beginnings and transitions, his presence was ubiquitous and fragmented. Apart from the rites solemnizing the beginning of the new year and of every month, there were the special times of the year which marked the beginning and closing of the military season, in March and October respectively. These included the rite of the arma movēre on 1 March and that of the arma condĕre at the end of the month performed by the Salii, and the Tigillum Sororium on 1 October. Janus Quirinus was closely associated with the anniversaries of the dedications of the temples of Mars on 1 June (a date that corresponded with the festival of Carna, a deity associated with Janus: see below) and of that of Quirinus on 29 June (which was the last day of the month in the pre-Julian calendar). These important rites are discussed in detail below.

Any rite or religious act whatsoever required the invocation of Janus first, with a corresponding invocation to Vesta at the end (Janus primus and Vesta extrema). Instances are to be found in the Carmen Saliare, the formula of the devotio, the lustration of the fields and the sacrifice of the porca praecidanea, the Acta of the Arval Brethren.

Although Janus had no flamen, he was closely associated with the rex sacrorum who performed his sacrifices and took part in most of his rites: the rex held the first place in the ordo sacerdotum, hierarchy of priests. The flamen of Portunus performed the ritual greasing of the spear of the god Quirinus on 17 August, day of the Portunalia, on the same date that the temple of Janus in the Forum Holitorium had been consecrated by consul Gaius Duilius in 260 BC.

Beginning of the year

The winter solstice was thought to occur on 25 December. On 1 January was New Year's Day: the day was consecrated to Janus since it was the first of the new year and of the month (kalends) of Janus: the feria had an augural character as Romans believed the beginning of anything was an omen for the whole. Thus on that day it was customary to exchange cheerful words of good wishes. For the same reason everybody devoted a short time to his usual business, exchanged dates, figs and honey as a token of well wishing and made gifts of coins called strenae. Cakes made of spelt (far) and salt were offered to the god and burnt on the altar. Ovid states that in most ancient times there were no animal sacrifices and gods were propitiated with offerings of spelt and pure salt. This libum was named ianual and it was probably correspondent to the summanal offered the day before the Summer solstice to god Summanus, which however was sweet being made with flour, honey and milk.

Shortly afterwards, on 9 January, on the feria of the Agonium of January, the rex sacrorum offered the sacrifice of a ram to Janus.

Beginning of the month

At the kalends of each month, the rex sacrorum and the pontifex minor offered a sacrifice to Janus in the curia Calabra, while the regina offered a sow or a she lamb to Juno.

Beginning of the day

Morning belonged to Janus: men started their daily activities and business. Horace calls him Matutine Pater, morning father. G. Dumézil believes this custom is at the origin of the learned interpretations of Janus as a solar deity.

Space

Janus was also involved in spatial transitions, presiding over home doors, city gates and boundaries. Numerous toponyms of places located at the boundary between the territory of two communities, especially Etrurians and Latins or Umbrians, are named after the god. The most notable instance is the Ianiculum which marked the access to Etruria from Rome. Since borders often coincided with rivers and the border of Rome (and other Italics) with Etruria was the Tiber, it has been argued that its crossing had a religious connotation; it would have involved a set of rigorous apotropaic practices and a devotional attitude. Janus would have originally regulated particularly the crossing of this sacred river through the pons sublicius.

The name of the Iāniculum is not derived by that of the god, but from the abstract noun iānus, -us. Adams Holland opines it would have been originally the name of a small bridge connecting the Tiber Island (on which she supposes the first shrine of Janus stood) with the right bank of the river.

However Janus was the protector of doors, gates and roadways in general, as is shown by his two symbols, the key and the staff. The key too was a sign that the traveller had come to a harbour or ford in peace to exchange his goods.

The rite of the bride's oiling the posts of the door of her new home with wolf fat at her arrival, though not mentioning Janus explicitly, is a rite of passage related to the ianua.

Rites of the Salii

The rites of the Salii marked the springtime beginning of the war season in March and its closing in October. The structure of the patrician sodalitas, made up by the two groups of the Salii Palatini, who were consecrated to Mars and whose institution was traditionally ascribed to Numa (with headquarter on the Palatine), and the Salii Collini or Agonales, consecrated to Quirinus and whose foundation was ascribed to Tullus Hostilius, (with headquarter on the Quirinal) reflects in its division the dialectic symbolic role they played in the rites of the opening and closing of the military season. So does the legend of their foundation itself: the peace-loving king Numa instituted the Salii of Mars Gradivus, foreseeing the future wars of the Romans while the warmonger king Tullus, in a battle during a longstanding war with the Sabines, swore to found a second group of Salii should he obtain victory.

The paradox of the pacifist king serving Mars and passage to war and of the warmonger king serving Quirinus to achieve peace under the expected conditions highlights the dialectic nature of the cooperation between the two gods, inherent to their own function. Because of the working of the talismans of the sovereign god they guaranteed alternatively force and victory, fecundity and plenty. It is noteworthy that the two groups of Salii did not split their competences so that one group only opened the way to war and the other to peace: they worked together both at the opening and the conclusion of the military season, marking the passage of power from one god to the other. Thus the Salii enacted the dialectic nature present in the warring and peaceful aspect of the Roman people, particularly the iuvenes.

This dialectic was reflected materially by the location of the temple of Mars outside the pomerium and of the temple of Quirinus inside it. The annual dialectic rhythm of the rites of the Salii of March and October was also further reflected within the rites of each month and spatially by their repeated crossing of the pomerial line. The rites of March started on the first with the ceremony of the ancilia movere, developed through the month on the 14th with Equirria in the Campus Martius (and the rite of Mamurius Veturius marking the expulsion of the old year), the 17th with the Agonium Martiale, the 19th with the Quinquatrus in the Comitium (which correspond symmetrically with the Armilustrium of 19 October), on the 23rd with the Tubilustrium and they terminated at the end of the month with the rite of the ancilia condere. Only after this month-long set of rites was accomplished was it fas to undertake military campaigns.

Tigillum Sororium

This rite was supposed to commemorate the expiation of the murder of his own sister by Marcus Horatius. The young hero with his head veiled had to pass under a beam spanning an alley. The rite was repeated every year on 1 October. The tigillum consisted of a beam on two posts. It was kept in good condition at public expenses to the time of Livy. Behind the tigillum, on opposite sides of the alley, stood the two altars of Janus Curiatius and Juno Sororia. Its location was on the vicus leading to the Carinae, perhaps at the point of the crossing of the pomerium. The rite and myth have been interpreted by Dumezil as a purification and desacralization of the soldiers from the religious pollution contracted in war, and a freeing of the warrior from furor, wrath, as dangerous in the city as it is necessary on campaign.

The rite took place on the kalends of October, the month marking the end of the yearly military activity in ancient Rome. Scholars have offered different interpretations of the meaning of Janus Curiatius and Juno Sororia. The association of the two gods with this rite is not immediately clear. It is however apparent that they exchanged their epithets, as Curiatius is connected to (Juno) Curitis and Sororia to (Janus) Geminus. Renard thinks that while Janus is the god of motion and transitions he is not concerned directly with purification, while the arch is more associated with Juno. This fact would be testified by the epithet Sororium, shared by the tigillum and the goddess. Juno Curitis is also the protectress of the iuvenes, the young soldiers. Paul the Deacon states that the sororium tigillum was a sacer (sacred) place in honour of Juno. Another element linking Juno with Janus is her identification with Carna, suggested by the festival of this deity on the kalends (day of Juno) of June, the month of Juno.

Carna was a nymph of the sacred lucus of Helernus, made goddess of hinges by Janus with the name of Cardea, and had the power of protecting and purifying thresholds and the doorposts. This would be a further element in explaining the role of Juno in the Tigillum. It was also customary for new brides to oil the posts of the door of their new homes with wolf fat. In the myth of Janus and Carna (see section below) Carna had the habit when pursued by a young man of asking him out of shyness for a hidden recess and thereupon fleeing: but two headed Janus saw her hiding in a crag under some rocks. Thence the analogy with the rite of the Tigillum Sororium would be apparent: both in the myth and in the rite Janus, the god of motion, goes through a low passage to attain Carna as Horatius passes under the tigillum to obtain his purification and the restitution to the condition of citizen eligible for civil activities, including family life. The purification is then the prerequisite for fertility. The custom of attaining lustration and fertility by passing under a gap in rocks, a hole in the soil or a hollow in a tree is widespread.

Myths

In discussing myths about Janus, one should be careful in distinguishing those which are ancient and originally Latin and those others which were later attributed to him by Greek mythographers. In the Fasti Ovid relates only the myths that associate Janus with Saturn, whom he welcomed as a guest and with whom he eventually shared his kingdom in reward for teaching the art of agriculture, and to the nymph Crane, Grane, or Carna, whom Janus raped and made the goddess of hinges as Cardea, while in the Metamorphoses he records his fathering with Venilia the nymph Canens, loved by Picus, first legendary king of the Aborigines.

The myth of Crane has been studied by M. Renard and G. Dumezil. The first scholar sees in it a sort of parallel with the theology underlying the rite of the Tigillum Sororium. Crane is a nymph of the sacred wood of Helernus, located at the issue of the Tiber, whose festival of 1 February corresponded with that of Juno Sospita: Crane might be seen as a minor imago of the goddess. Her habit of deceiving her male pursuers by hiding in crags in the soil reveals her association not only with vegetation but also with rocks, caverns, and underpassages. Her nature looks to be also associated with vegetation and nurture: G. Dumezil has proved that Helernus was a god of vegetation, vegetative lushness and orchards, particularly associated with vetch. As Ovid writes in his Fasti, 1 June was the festival day of Carna, besides being the calendary festival of the month of Juno and the festival of Juno Moneta. Ovid seems to purposefully conflate and identify Carna with Cardea in the aetiologic myth related above. Consequently, the association of both Janus and the god Helernus with Carna-Crane is highlighted in this myth: it was customary on that day to eat ivetch (mashed beans) and lard, which were supposed to strengthen the body. Cardea had also magic powers for protecting doorways (by touching thresholds and posts with wet hawthorn twigs) and newborn children by the aggression of the striges (in the myth the young Proca). M. Renard sees the association of Janus with Crane as reminiscent of widespread rites of lustration and fertility performed through ritual walking under low crags or holes in the soil or natural hollows in trees, which in turn are reflected in the lustrative rite of the Tigillum Sororium.

Macrobius relates that Janus was supposed to have shared a kingdom with Camese in Latium, in a place then named Camesene. He states that Hyginus recorded the tale on the authority of a Protarchus of Tralles. In Macrobius Camese is a male: after Camese's death Janus reigned alone. However Greek authors make of Camese Janus's sister and spouse: Atheneus citing a certain Drakon of Corcyra writes that Janus fathered with his sister Camese a son named Aithex and a daughter named Olistene. Servius Danielis states Tiber (i.e., Tiberinus) was their son.

Origin, legends, and history

In accord with his fundamental character of being the Beginner, Janus was considered by Romans the first king of Latium, sometimes along with Camese. He would have received hospitably the god Saturn, who, expelled from Heaven by Jupiter, arrived on a ship to the Janiculum. Janus would have also effected the miracle of turning the waters of the spring at the foot of the Viminal from cold to scorching hot to fend off the assault of the Sabines of king Titus Tatius, come to avenge the kidnapping of their daughters by the Romans.

His temple named Janus Geminus had to stand open in times of war. It was said to have been built by king Numa Pompilius, who kept it always shut during his reign as there were no wars. After him it was closed very few times, one after the end of the first Punic War, three times under Augustus and once by Nero. It is recorded that emperor Gordianus III opened the Janus Geminus.

It is a noteworthy curiosity that the opening of the Janus was perhaps the last act connected to the ancient religion in Rome: Procopius writes that in 536, during the Gothic War, while general Belisarius was under siege in Rome, at night somebody opened the Janus Geminus stealthily, which had stayed closed since the 390 edict of Theodosius I that banned the ancient cults. Janus was faithful to his liminal role also in the marking of this last act.

Distant origin hypothesis

The uniqueness of Janus in Latium has suggested to L. Adams Holland and J. Gagé the hypothesis of a cult brought from far away by sailors and strictly linked to the amphibious life of the primitive communities living on the banks of the Tiber. In the myth of Janus, the ship of Saturn, as well as the myth of Carmenta and Evander are reminiscent of an ancient pre-Roman sailing life. The elements that seem to connect Janus to sailing are presented in two articles by J. Gagé summarised here below.

(a) The proximity of Janus and Portunus and the functions of the flamen Portunalis

The temple of Janus was dedicated by Gaius Duilius on 17 August, day of the Portunalia. The key was the symbol of both gods and was also meant to signify that the boarding boat was a peaceful merchant boat.

The flamen Portunalis oiled the arms of Quirinus with an ointment kept in a peculiar container named persillum, term perhaps derived from Etruscan persie. A similar object seems to be represented in a fresco picture of the Calendar of Ostia on which young boys prepare to apply a resin contained in a basin to a boat on a cart, i.e. yet to be launched.

(b) The Tigillum Sororium

The Tigillum Sororium would be related to a gentilician cult of wood of the Horatii, as surmised by the episodes of the pons sublicius defended by Horatius Cocles, and of the posts of the main entrance of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus on which Marcus Horatius Pulvillus lay his hand during the dedication rite. Gagé thinks the magic power of the Tigillum Sororium should be ascribed to the lively and burgeoning nature of wood.

Trees as the wild olive, and the Greek or Italic lotus (Celtis australis), have analogous religious qualities to those of corniolum and wild fig for sailing communities: its wood does not rot in sea water, thence it was used in shipbuilding and in the making of rolls for hauling of ships overland.

The depiction of both Janus and Boreas as bifrons, and seasonal elements.

Relationship with other gods

Janus and Juno

The relationship between Janus and Juno is defined by the closeness of the notions of beginning and transition and the functions of conception and delivery. The reader is referred to the above sections Cult epithets and Tigillum Sororium of this article and the corresponding section of article Juno.

Janus and Quirinus

Quirinus is a god that incarnates the quirites, i.e. the Romans in their civil capacity of producers and fathers. He is surnamed Mars tranquillus (peaceful Mars), Mars qui praeest paci (Mars who presides on peace). His function of custos guardian is highlighted by the location of his temple inside the pomerium but not far from the gate of Porta Collina or Quirinalis, near the shrines of Sancus and Salus.

As a protector of peace he is nevertheless armed, in the same way as the quirites are, as they are potentially milites soldiers: his statue represents him is holding a spear. For this reason Janus, god of gates, is concerned with his function of protector of the civil community. For the same reason the flamen Portunalis oiled the arms of Quirinus, implying that they were to be kept in good order and ready even though they were not to be used immediately.

Dumézil and Schilling remark that as a god of the third function Quirinus is peaceful and represents the ideal of the pax romana i. e. a peace resting on victory.

Janus and Portunus

Portunus may be defined as a sort of duplication inside the scope of the powers and attributes of Janus. His original definition shows he was the god of gates and doors and of harbours. In fact it is debated whether his original function was only that of god of gates and the function of god of harbours was a later addition: Paul the Deacon writes:

"... he is depicted holding a key in his hand and was thought to be the god of gates".

Varro would have stated that he was the god of harbours and patron of gates. His festival day named Portunalia fell on 17 August, and he was venerated on that day in a temple ad pontem Aemilium and ad pontem Sublicium that had been dedicated on that date.

Portunus, unlike Janus, had his own flamen, named Portunalis. It is noteworthy that the temple of Janus in the Forum Holitorium had been consecrated on the day of the Portunalia, and that the flamen Portunalis was in charge of oiling the arms of the statue of Quirinus.

Janus and Vesta

The relationship between Janus and Vesta touches on the question of the nature and function of the gods of beginning and ending in Indo-European religion. While Janus has the first place, Vesta has the last, both in theology and in ritual (Ianus primus, Vesta extrema).

The last place implies a direct connection with the situation of the worshipper, in space and in time. Vesta is thence the goddess of the hearth of homes as well as of the city. Her inextinguishable fire is a means for men (as individuals and as a community) to keep in touch with the realm of gods. Thus there is a reciprocal link between the god of beginnings and unending motion, who bestows life to the beings of this world (Cerus Manus) as well as presiding over its end, and the goddess of the hearth of man, which symbolises through fire the presence of life. Vesta is a virgin goddess, but at the same time she is called a 'mother' of Rome: She is thought to be indispensable to the existence and survival of the community.

Janus in Etruria

It has long been believed that Janus was present among the theonyms on the outer rim of the Piacenza Liver in case 3, under the name of Aaron. This fact created a problem as the god of beginnings looked to be located in a situation other than the initial, i.e. the first case. After the new readings proposed by A. Maggiani, in case 3 one should read TINS: the difficulty has thus dissolved. Aaron has thence been eliminated from Franciscan theology as this was his only attestation. Maggiani remarks that this earlier identification was in contradiction with the testimony ascribed to Varro by Johannes Lydus that Janus was named caelum among the Etruscans.

On the other hand, as expected Janus is present in region I of Martianus Capella's division of Heaven and in region XVI, the last one, are to be found the Ianitores terrestres (along with Nocturnus), perhaps to be identified in Forculus, Limentinus and Cardea, deities strictly related to Janus as his auxiliaries (or perhaps even no more than concrete subdivisions of his functions) as the meaning of their names implies: Forculus is the god of the forca, a iugum, low passage, Limentinus the guardian of the limes, boundary, Cardea the goddess of hinges, here of the gates separating Earth and Heaven.

The problem posed by the qualifying adjective terrestres earthly, can be addressed in two different ways.

One hypothesis is that Martianus's depiction implies a descent from Heaven onto Earth. However Martianus's depiction does not look to be confined to a division Heaven-Earth as it includes the Underworld and other obscure regions or remote recesses of Heaven. Thence one may argue that the articulation Ianus-Ianitores could be interpreted as connected to the idea of the Gates of Heaven (the Synplegades) which open on the Heaven on one side and on Earth or the Underworld on the other.

From other archaeological documents though it has become clear that the Etruscans had another god who was double-faced like Janus: Culśanś, of which there is a bronze statuette from Cortona (now at Cortona Museum). While Janus is a bearded adult, Culśans is an unbearded youth, making his identification with Hermes look possible. However, his name is also connected with the Etruscan word for doors and gates.

Association with non-Roman gods

Roman and Greek authors maintained Janus was an exclusively Roman god. This claim is excessive according to R. Schilling, at least as far as iconography is concerned. A god with two faces appears repeatedly in Sumerian and Babylonian art.

The ancient Sumerian deity Isimud was commonly portrayed with two faces facing in opposite directions. Sumerian depictions of Isimud are often very similar to the typical portrayals of Janus in ancient Roman art. Unlike Janus, however, Isimud is not a god of doorways. Instead, he is the messenger of Enki, the ancient Sumerian god of water and civilization. Reproductions of the image of Isimud, whose Babylonian name was Usimu, on cylinders in Sumero-Accadic art can to be found in H. Frankfort's work Cylinder seals (London 1939) especially in plates at p. 106, 123, 132, 133, 137, 165, 245, 247, 254. On plate XXI, c, Usimu is seen while introducing worshippers to a seated god.

Janus-like heads of gods related to Hermes have been found in Greece, perhaps suggesting a compound god.

William Betham argued that the cult arrived from the Middle East and that Janus corresponds to the Baal-ianus or Belinus of the Chaldeans, sharing a common origin with the Oannes of Berosus.

P. Grimal considers Janus a conflation of a Roman god of doorways and an ancient Syro-Hittite uranic cosmogonic god.

The Roman statue of the Janus of the Argiletum, traditionally ascribed to Numa, was possibly very ancient, perhaps a sort of xoanon, like the Greek ones of the 8th century BC.

Other analogous or comparable deities of the prima in Indo-European religions have been analysed by G. Dumézil. They include the Indian goddess Aditi who is called two-faced as she is the one who starts and concludes ceremonies, and Scandinavian god Heimdallr. The theological features of Heimdallr look similar to Janus's: both in space and time he stands at the limits. His abode is at the limits of Earth, at the extremity of Heaven; he is the protector of the gods; his birth is at the beginning of time; he is the forefather of mankind, the generator of classes and the founder of the social order. Nonetheless he is inferior to the sovereign god Oðinn: the Minor Völuspá defines his relationship to Oðinn almost with the same terms as those in which Varro defines that of Janus, god of the prima to Jupiter, god of the summa: Heimdallr is born as the firstborn (primigenius, var einn borinn í árdaga), Oðinn is born as the greatest (maximus, var einn borinn öllum meiri). Analogous Iranian formulae are to be found in an Avestic gāthā (Gathas). In other towns of ancient Latium the function of presiding over beginnings was probably performed by other deities of feminine sex, notably the Fortuna Primigenia of Praeneste.

Legacy

In the Middle Ages, Janus was taken as the symbol of Genoa, whose Medieval Latin name was Ianua, as well as of other European communes. The comune of Selvazzano di Dentro near Padua has a grove and an altar of Janus depicted on its standard, but their existence is unproved. In medieval art, Janus was still sometimes depicted as the embodiment of time. In some artwork, a third face was added between the forward- and rear-looking ones to symbolize the present in addition to the past and future.

In demonology, Janus is corrupted into Bifrons, and is described by grimoires such as The Lesser Key of Solomon as a demonic earl in charge of moving bodies into graves and lighting candles over them, possibly suggesting the retention of Janus's role as a deity of endings and guardian of passages.

In Act I Scene 1 of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, Salarino refers to the two-headed Janus while failing to find the reason of Antonio's melancholy. In Act I Scene 2 of Shakespeare's Othello, Iago invokes the name of Janus after the failure of his plot against the titular character.

In her 1921 book The Witch-Cult in Western Europe, folklorist Margaret Murray claimed that evidence found in records of the early modern witch trials showed the witches' god, usually identified in the records as the Devil, was in fact often a male priest dressed in a double mask representing Janus. Murray traced the presence of a man dressed with a mask on the back of his head at some witch meetings to confessions of accused witches in the Pyrenees region, and one statement in particular that the leader of the witches appeared "comme le dieu Janus" ("as the god Janus"). Via the etymology given by James Frazier, Murray further connected the figure on Janus or Dianus in the witch-cult with the more well known goddess of witchcraft, Diana. Both Murray's contemporaries and modern scholars have argued that Murray's hypothesis and the connections she drew between Janus and Diana, and linking the early modern witch trials with ancient pagan beliefs, are dubious.

Janus Films, a film distribution company founded in 1956, takes its name from the god and features a two-faced Janus as its logo.

The Janus Society was an early homophile organization founded in 1962 and based in Philadelphia. It is notable as the publisher of DRUM magazine, one of the earliest gay-interest publications in the United States and most widely circulated in the 1960s, and for its role in organizing many of the nation's earliest gay rights demonstrations. The organization focused on a policy of militant respectability, a strategy demanding respect by showing the public gay individuals conforming to hetero-normative standards of dress at protests.