Janus stands out among the Roman gods as one of the few who do not appear to have Greek roots or a Greek equivalent.
He is a complex god associated with beginnings, endings, and transformations, and as an extension of that, physical gateways. He was also considered to control the gateway between the mortal and the divine. Consequently, in the Roman state religion, Janus was always invoked at the start of every religious ritual, regardless of which god was the focus of the sacrifice. In this way, Janus is very similar to the Voodoo god Papa Legba, who also had to be invoked before communicating with any of the other Voodoo gods.
Janus appears as a god with two faces, usually one facing in each direction. In that way, he is similar to the Greek goddess Hecate, a goddess of witchcraft and the moon who often stood at the crossroads in Greek religion. The Romans also had crossroad gods known as the Lares Compitales.
Gateway God
In ancient Latin, gateways were called Ianua, named for the god and not the other way around. He was associated with the gateway in and out of every home, and also gateways in and out of the city. His symbols were the staff and key.
Unlike most of the Roman state gods, Janus had no flamen or dedicated priests. Instead, his rituals were undertaken by the Rex Sacrorum, or the king of the priests. He was probably also honored by the paterfamilias, the head of the family, in homes as part of daily rituals. Janus was associated with sunrise and would have been invoked to ensure that only good luck flowed through the door into the household.
Janus also controlled the gateway between the heavens and the earth, and it is explicitly stated that Jupiter, the most important Roman god, can move between the two thanks to Janus. We see in the surviving records of regular sacrifices made by groups like the Arval Brothers. They sacrificed to Janus before making their frequent sacrifices to Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Juno Regina, and Minerva. Just as rituals were usually opened with sacrifices to Janus, they were often ended with sacrifices to Vesta, the goddess of the Roman hearth.
As a gateway god, Janus was also associated with many of the borders between Rome and the neighboring communities, such as the Latins and Umbrians. There seem to have been shrines dedicated to Janus around the area and specific rituals that should be conducted to pass boundaries, which were often rivers. This gives new meaning to the story of Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon into Italy and starting a civil war that would transform Rome from a Republic to an Empire. He probably uttered the words “fortune favors the bold” with Janus in mind.
God of Beginnings
The year was established as starting in January when Julius Caesar reformed the calendar in 45 BCE, moving from a lunar calendar to a solar calendar, and the start of the year from March to January. Plutarch suggests that the Roman king Numa Pompilius previously made January the start of the year on account of Janur, but it must have later been changed.
Janus received new year sacrifices on the first of January. The new year was reigned in with cheerful words, and a portion of time dedicated to your main tasks. This was because the start of something was seen as an omen for how it would work out, so doing some good work on the first day of the year could create a good omen. People also exchanged small gifts and burned cakes on the altar for Janus in a bloodless sacrifice.
Janus also received sacrifices on the first, called the kalends, of every month
He had another major festival known as the Agonalia Ianuarius on January 9th. This is when Janus would then receive his blood sacrifice, a ram sacrificed by the Rex Sacrorum. Janus was one of the few gods honored with these special sacrifices from the Rex Sacrorum, which also included Mars on March 17, Veiovis on May 21, and Sol Indiges on December 11.
God of War and Peace
Janus has several temples in Rome. The very first was reportedly built by the mythical Roman king Numa Pompilius in the 7th century BCE, who is credited with establishing the majority of Rome’s religious practices. He established not a temple, but an open-air enclosed sacred space with gates at either end. The gates were famously open when Rome was at war and closed when Rome was at peace. The first Roman emperor, Augustus, boasted about how many times he was able to close the doors throughout his career in his Res Gestae, his account of his great deeds.
Janus was associated with war, as starting and ending wars was seen as a transition. As an extension of this, rites were conducted to Janus at the start of the war season in March and at the end of the war season in October each year.
Master of Time
Janus was also closely associated with the passage of time. In another temple dedicated to the god, consecrated in 260 BCE, there is a statue of Janus with his fingers arranged to show the number 3 on one hand and 65 on the other hand, representing the 365 days in the Roman solar calendar. His temple also had 12 columns to represent the twelve months.
We know that an arch was also built for Janus in the 1st century CE during the reign of Domitian. Much of Rome burned down in a great fire that occurred during the short reign of his brother Titus, giving Domitian the opportunity to rebuild and build many new temples. He chose Janus as one of the gods to honor.
Primordial God
Janus never had the same clear mythology as other Roman gods, such as Jupiter, who borrowed heavily from the mythology of the Greek counterparts. But the Romans themselves had theories about Janus’ origins.
Macrobius (c. 400 CE) suggested that Janus may also have been a sun god, one of the twins Ianus and Iana, who were the equivalent of the Greek twins Apollo and Artemis, but this seems like it may be a later Greek invention. Janus was never a rival to Jupiter as a sky god.
But Janus may have predated Jupiter. Paul the Deacon, nd 8th-century Italian Christian, suggested that he was related to the waters of chaos that existed at the start of creation, and might embody those waters in some way, embodying the beginning of all things.
Paul the Deacon also recalls many epithets that were used for Janus, many of which point to his primordial or creator nature. He is called:
- Cozeulos – the sower
- Patultius – the opener
- Iancus – the gatekeeper
- Duonus Ceres – the good creator
- Rex – king
- Divum Patrem – father of the gods
- Divum Deus – father of the gods
- Ianitos – the timekeeper
He was clearly associated with creation, which in some ways separated him from the rest of the gods, and could explain his position as the intermediary between the mortal and the divine.
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