Janus(lat. Ianus, from lat. Ianua- "door") - in Roman mythology - the two-faced god of doors, entrances, exits, various passages, as well as the beginning and end, as well as the god of time. portrayed two-faced janus always with two faces - usually young and old, looking in opposite directions.

two-faced janus was the deity of the sky and sunlight who opened the gates of heaven and released the sun into the sky, and locked these gates at night. Under the aegis of Janus all the doors were located - a private house, a temple of the gods or a gate of the city walls, and, since he counted the days, months and years, the number CCC (300) was inscribed on the fingers of his right hand, and LXV (65) on the left, The sum of these numbers is the number of days of the year. The beginning of the year is named after Janus, its first month is Januarius.

Two-faced Janus today is a symbol of duplicity, hypocrisy and lies, in my opinion, completely undeserved - the ancient Romans did not at all associate these qualities with the deity Janus, the directions for which he was responsible were very honorable, vital and had a philosophical meaning.

Apparently, just the presence of two persons in one deity is associated with people with opposite qualities, according to the principle of "good-bad", and they belong to the same being.

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Janus, Roman god of doors; as such, it had two faces, since the door is both an entrance and an exit, it leads both inside the house and outside. In addition, he was the god of treaties and alliances. Janus commanded the beginnings, his place in space - entrance doors and the gate, its place in time is the beginning of the year, the beginning of events.

Before the advent of the cult of Jupiter, Janus was the deity of the sky and sunlight, who opened the gates of heaven and released the sun into the sky, and locked these gates at night. There was also a belief that Janus reigned on earth even before Saturn and taught people the calculation of time, crafts and agriculture. He is associated with the golden age, since he was considered the first ruler of Latium, a civilization that is traditionally identified as "Promethean", since its existence was initiated by his gifts to humanity: fire, crafts and a calendar.

The first temple of Janus was erected according to legend by King Numa Pompilius. The temple of Janus consisted of two large arches connected by transverse walls, with two gates facing each other. Inside was a statue of a god who had two faces facing in opposite directions; one to the past, the other to the future. Janus had a key in his hand, with which he unlocked and locked the gates of heaven. Since Janus was the god of time, counting the days, months and years, then on his right hand the number 300 was inscribed, and on the left - 65, which meant the number of days in a year. The Romans associated Janus with fate, time and war; Janus was used by the Italians when they declared war.

In Ovid, the two-faced Janus, as the embodiment of the beginning and the end, is identified with the chaos from which the ordered world arose; in the course of this process, Janus himself from a shapeless block-ball turned into a god, rotating, according to Ovid, the axis of the world. Perhaps he originally acted as the supreme deity; his name was mentioned first when addressing the gods. His epithet Gemin means Double; the image of Janus can be considered as an expression of the unity of opposites and the personification of inclusiveness, power over all spheres of being. This image embodies the idea that technical progress entails irreversible and often negative changes in the human way of life; it is a symbol of the careless and improvident use of natural forces and the achievements of civilization.

Janus was also the patron of travelers and the keeper of the roads, and was revered among the Italian sailors, who believed that it was he who taught people to build the first ships. Wine, fruits and honey cakes were sacrificed to Janus, and at the beginning of the year - a white bull.

Janus - in Roman mythology - the two-faced god of doors, entrances, exits, various passages, as well as the beginning and end, as well as the god of time. A two-faced Janus was always depicted with two faces - usually young and old, looking in opposite directions.

The two-faced Janus was the deity of the sky and sunlight, who opened the heavenly gates and released the sun into the sky, and locked these gates at night. Under the auspices of Janus were all the doors - a private house, a temple of the gods or a gate of the city walls, and since he kept count of days, months and years, the number CCC was inscribed on the fingers of his right hand, and on the left - LXV, in total these the numbers represent the number of days of the year. The beginning of the year is named after Janus, its first month is Januarius.

Today, the two-faced Janus is a symbol of duplicity, hypocrisy and lies, in my opinion, completely undeserved - the ancient Romans did not associate these qualities with the deity Janus at all, the directions for which he was responsible were very honorable, vital and had a philosophical meaning.

Apparently, people simply associate the presence of two faces in one deity with opposite qualities, according to the good-bad principle, and they belong to the same being.

Sources: aforizmu.com, godsbay.ru, esperanto-plus.ru, dic.academic.ru, talusha.3bb.ru

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The concept of "two-faced Janus" is known to many only as a phraseological unit, which is usually used in relation to an insincere, two-faced person. Unfortunately, the merits of the character who gave the name to this epithet have long been irretrievably forgotten.

Two-faced Janus - who is it?

In ancient Roman mythology, the god of time Janus, the ruler of the country of the Latins, is known. From the almighty god Saturn he received amazing ability to see the past and the future, and this gift was reflected in the face of the deity - they began to depict him with two faces facing in opposite directions. Hence the name "two-faced", "two-faced". Like all the heroes of legends, the king of Latium - the ancestral home of Rome - gradually turned into a "multifunctional" character:

• patron of time;
• guardian of all entrances and exits;
• the god of every beginning and every end;
• bearer of all good and bad in this world.

The legend of the two-faced Janus

Before the cult of Jupiter in Roman mythology, his place was occupied by the two-faced Janus, the god of time, who presided over the day solstice. He did nothing special during his reign in the Roman lands, but according to legend he had power over natural phenomena and patron of all warriors and their undertakings. Sometimes the character was depicted with keys in his hand, and his name with Latin translates to "door".

There is a legend that in honor of the two-faced deity, the second Roman king Numa Pompilius erected a temple with a bronze arch and unlocked the gates of the sanctuary before hostilities. Soldiers, preparing to go to war, passed through the arch and asked two-faced god victory. The warriors believed that the patron would be with them during the battle. The two faces of the deity were a symbol of forward movement and victorious return back. The doors of the temple were not locked during the war and, unfortunately for the Roman Empire, were closed only three times.

Janus - mythology

The god Janus is one of the oldest in Roman mythology. The calendar month dedicated to him is January (January). The Romans believed that the two-faced man taught people calculus, because numbers corresponding to the days of the year were inscribed on his hands:

• on the right hand - 300 (CCC);
• on the left hand - 65 (LXV).

In the first days of the new year, a celebration was held in honor of the deity, giving each other gifts and sacrificing fruits, wine, pies, and most important person in the state became High priest who sacrificed a white bull to heaven. Subsequently, at every sacrifice, as at the beginning of every deed, a two-faced god was invoked. He was considered more important than all other characters of the Roman pantheon and was not identified with any of the heroes of Greek mythology.

Janus and Vesta

The cult of the god of time is inseparable from the goddess Vesta, the keeper of the hearth. If the many-faced Janus personified the doors (and all other entrances and exits), then Vesta protected what was inside. She carried grace-filled power fire in dwellings. Vesta was given a place at the entrance to the house, right outside the doors, which was called the "vestibulum". The goddess was also mentioned at every sacrifice. Her temple was located on the forum opposite the temple of the Two-Faced, and fire was always burning in it.

Janus and Epimetheus

The Roman god Janus and the titan Epimetheus, who became the first to accept a girl from Zeus, do not interact in mythology, but the characters gave names to two satellites of the planet Saturn, located in close proximity to each other. The distance between the fifth and sixth moon is only 50 km. The first satellite, which received the name of the "two-faced deity", was discovered by astronomers in 1966, and 12 years later it was found that two objects were observed all this time, moving in close orbits. Thus, the many-sided Janus is also the moon of Saturn, he really has “two faces”.

The main deity of the Roman pantheon, the two-faced Janus, was invisibly present in each of the gods surrounding him and gave them supernatural power. He was revered as a sage, a just ruler, a keeper of time. Two-faced lost his status and gave it to Jupiter, but this does not detract from the merits of the character. Today, this name is completely undeservedly called low, deceitful people, hypocrites, but the ancient Romans did not bring such a meaning to this hero.

Myths and legends ancient rome Lazarchuk Dina Andreevna

Janus

The origin of the god Janus, who was not worshiped anywhere but Rome, is probably very ancient. In early texts, Janus was called the "god of gods" and the "good creator", which may be an echo of the myth of Janus as the creator of the whole world. In later times, Janus was no longer seen as a demiurge, but as a deity of doors, entrances and exits, but he remained one of the most revered Roman gods.

His name, apparently, comes from the word ianua - "door", although Cicero associated it with the verb inire - "to advance", Ovid raised the name "Janus" to "Chaos", from which he supposedly appeared at the time of the creation of the world . In ancient times, they say, Janus lived on the site of Rome on the Janiculum hill.

Since Janus was the god of doors, his temple, built according to legend by Numa Pompilius in the northern part of the Roman forum, was a double arch with a roof and walls. These were the symbolic gates of the Roman state, in the center of which, inside, stood the image of Janus.

The temple of Janus served as an indicator of war and peace in Rome: when the war began, the king or consul unlocked the temple and through these gates, in front of the faces of God, the Roman soldiers going on a campaign passed. For the duration of the war, the gates remained open and were locked only when there was peace in the whole state. Hence, apparently, some connection between Janus and Quirinus, the Sabine god of war. At least, Numa Pompilius dedicated the temple-gate, according to legend, to the deity Janus Quirinus, the priests-fetials also call him in the solemn formula for declaring war.

Being the god of entry, Janus was considered in Rome the patron of any beginning. The Romans said: "In the hands of Janus - the beginning, in the hands of Jupiter - everything." When addressing the gods, the first name of Janus was proclaimed. In honor of him, the first month of the twelve-month year, January - januaris, was called, the holiday of the new year itself was dedicated to him - the January kalends, when a white bull was sacrificed to Janus. Any kalends, that is, the first day of the month, were also dedicated to Janus, as were the morning hours of each day. Gradually, Janus began to be revered as a deity that controls the movement of the year and time in general. On some of his images, on the fingers of Janus, the Roman number CCCLXV is inscribed in two (on the right CCC, on the left - LXV), that is, 365 - by the number of days in a year.

In addition, Janus was considered a divine gatekeeper, calling him the Closing and Opening, since in the morning he opened the heavenly gates and released the sun into the sky, and locked it back at night. Therefore, Janus is depicted with a key in one hand and a staff in the other.

But the most famous external attribute of Janus is his two-facedness, with the faces of Janus looking in opposite directions. This feature was explained by the fact that the doors also lead both outward and inward, and also by the fact that Janus looks at the past and the future at the same time.

Despite the fact that Janus was one of the most respected gods by the state, the cult of Janus was not widely spread among the people. However simple people Janus was also considered the patron of roads and travelers, and Roman sailors brought gifts to him, as they believed that it was he who taught people to build the first ships.

Some say that Janus was married to the nymph Yuturn, the sister of the Rutulian king Turn, who had her own source near the Numitia River. Yuturna bore him a son, Font, the god of springs.

Dance to the music of time. Artist N. Poussin

They also tell the story of Janus and the nymph Karna, with whom he was in love. Karna avoided the company of men, preferring to hunt animals and birds with darts. Many young men were looking for her love, and to the most persistent she said that in the light of the sun she was ashamed to answer their requests, but offered to go into a dark cave, where she promised caresses. She herself, instead of following them, hid in a dense bush.

Karna also answered Janus in love, but she forgot that Janus has two faces and he sees with his back where she hid. In the thickets under the very rock, Janus overtook the nymph and, already embracing, promised to make her the goddess of door hinges in return for the lost virginity and presented a white thorn branch, which was turned away from the doors of the house of misfortune.

Once Karna saved the five-day-old Proca, the future king of Alba Longa, from night birds that fed on the blood and entrails of babies. Having sprinkled the threshold with water and donated pork giblets to the birds, Karna left a white branch of Janus on the window of the royal house, and the night birds did not touch the baby anymore. Since then, Karna has been revered as the protector of children and the guardian of internal organs person.