Roman bust of Janus, Vatican.

In Roman mythology, Janus (or Ianus) was the god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings, and endings. His most apparent remnants in modern culture are his namesakes, the month of January and the caretaker of doors and halls: Janitor. Download high resolution version (1024x768, 363 KB)Bust of Janus, Vatican Museum I, the creator of this image, hereby release it into the public domain. ... Download high resolution version (1024x768, 363 KB)Bust of Janus, Vatican Museum I, the creator of this image, hereby release it into the public domain. ... Fresco from the Villa of the Mysteries. ... A head of Minerva found in the ruins of the Roman baths in Bath Roman mythology, the mythological beliefs of the people of Ancient Rome, can be considered as having two parts. ... God, as a male deity, contrasts with female deities, or goddesses while the term goddess specifically refers to a female deity, words like gods and deities can be applied to all gods collectively, regardless of gender. ... For other uses, see January (disambiguation). ... A janitor is a person who takes care of a building, such as a school, office building, or apartment block. ...

Ancient incarnation

Imagery

Though he was usually depicted with two faces looking in opposite directions (Janus Geminus (twin Janus) or Bifrons), in some places he was Janus Quadrifrons (the four-faced). Arch of Janus. ...

His two faces (originally, one was always bearded, one clean-shaven; later both bearded) originally represented the sun and the moon, and he was usually shown with a key. The two-faced image of Janus was often depicted on coins of the Roman Republic. January is named after him, depicting the new year period of looking back at the previous year, and looking forward to the coming year Sol redirects here. ... This article is about Earths moon. ...

Patronage

Janus was frequently used to symbolize change and transitions such as the progression of future to past, of one condition to another, of one vision to another, the growing up of young people, and of one universe to another. He was also known as the figure representing 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 marriages, births and other beginnings. He was representative of the middle ground between barbarity and civilization, rural country and urban cities, and youth and adulthood.

Myths

Carna

His ability to see both forwards and backwards at the same time aided him in his pursuit of the nymph Carna to whom he gave power over door hinges as a reward for her favours. Carna refers to two distinct women from Roman mythology. ...

Other myths

Janus was supposed to have come from Thessaly in Greece and he shared a kingdom with Camese in Latium. They had many children, including Tiberinus. Janus and his later wife, Juturna, were the parents of Fontus. Another wife was named Jana. Map showing Thessaly periphery in Greece Thessaly (Θεσσαλια; modern Greek Thessalía; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is one of the 13 peripheries of Greece, and is further sub-divided into 4 prefectures. ... Latium (Lazio in Italian) is a region of central Italy, bordered by Tuscany, Umbria, Abruzzo, Marche, Molise, Campania and the Tyrrhenian Sea. ... Tiberinus is a figure in Roman mythology. ... In Roman mythology, Juturna was the goddess of fountains, wells and springs. ... In Roman mythology, Fontus was the son of Juturna and Janus. ... Look up Jana in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

As the sole ruler of Latium, Janus heralded the Golden Age, introducing money, laws and agriculture (making him a culture hero). This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A culture hero is a historical or mythological hero who changes the world through invention or discovery. ...

When Romulus and his men kidnapped the Sabine women, Janus caused a hot spring to erupt, causing the would-be attackers to flee. In honor of this, the doors to his temples were kept open during war so that he could easily intervene. The doors and gates were closed during peace. This page describes the ancient heroes who founded the city of Rome. ... The Rape of the Sabine Women by Giambologna The tribe of the Sabines (Latin Sabini - singular Sabinus) was an Italic tribe of ancient Italy. ...

Because he was the god of the door and hinges he was one the guardians of the Greek gods' treasures. From his name, we derive the English word janitor, meaning doorman.

Origins

The Romans associated Janus with the Etruscan deity Ani. However, he was one of the few Roman gods who had no ready-made counterpart, or analogous mythology. We can find in Greece Janus-like heads of gods related to Hermes, perhaps forming a compound god: Hermathena (a herm of Athena), Hermares, Hermaphroditus, Hermanubis, Hermalcibiades, and so on. In the case of these compounds it is disputed whether they indicated a herm with the head of Athena, or with a Janus-like head of both Hermes and Athena, or a figure compounded from both deities. The Etruscans were a race of unknown origin from North Italy who were eventually integrated into Rome. ... For other uses, see Hermes (disambiguation). ... Salmacis and Hermaphroditus by Bartholomeus Spranger (c. ...

Janus in popular culture

Janus has appeared in many aspects of popular culture. Popular culture, sometimes abbreviated to pop culture, consists of widespread cultural elements in any given society. ...

• Towards the end of the original version of The Gunslinger, the first Dark Tower novel by Stephen King, the man in black draws a card from a tarot deck picturing a woman with two faces (representing Odetta Holmes/Detta Walker) and remarks that she appears to be "a veritable Janus."

• Sun Ra has an album entitled Janus.

• In the 1986 DC Comics book adaption on the Super Powers Team television series, Darkseid changes his identity and becomes the superhero "Janus" and wins Wonder Woman's friendship and romantic interest. As Janus he enters the hall of Justice and plans to destroy his enemies and take revenge on Apokolips.

• In the television show Teen Titans, in the episode Nevermore, Janus guards the doorway inside of Raven.

• In the sci-fi television show Stargate Atlantis, Janus was an Ancient who built a time machine.

• In fashion, Janus's head appears on the embellished version of the House of Fendi logo.

• In Shakespeare's play Othello, the double-crossing Iago utters the words "By Janus" when lying to Othello, a play on words considering his own two faced nature.

• In Arthur Koestler's book The Roots of Coincidence (1972), the fourth chapter, where Koestler introduces his theory of the two-sided holons, is titled "Janus". He also wrote a book, about the same subject, titled Janus: A Summing Up (1978).

• Philosopher and anthropologist of science and technology Bruno Latour uses Janus in his 'bestseller' Science in Action (1987) to explain the difference between "ready made science and technology" and "science and technology in the making".

• In 'United Artists' 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye, Janus was used as the name for the villain's terrorist organisation, 'The Janus Syndicate'. Key in this organisation was a former 00-Agent who betrayed HMSS.

• Janus Films is a U.S. film distribution company founded in 1956 that distributes classic cinema, specializing mostly in foreign films.

• A Banshee.net agent in the Spycraft CCG was named Janus. The illustration on the card indicates that she was an android who could take the identity of others. The flavor text on the card read, "So who am I today?", and her play effect was to reduce all the skills of opposing agents by 1.

• A rare monster in the final dungeon in the game Shadow Hearts: From the New World.

• In the manga Ansatsu, Janus is the eighth Child in a series of bioweapons created for terrorist work.

• In Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, Janus is the moniker taken by the novel's villain.

• In the film The Da Vinci Code there is a statue of Janus in Teabing's library symbolizing that Teabing is two-faced.

• In the film Judge Dredd the super-secret program to grow clones to be Street Judges is called "Project Janus". Joseph Dredd and his evil twin Rico, were created under Project Janus before it was sealed. Additionally in the Judge Dredd comic series there is a Judge Janus

• In Alastair Reynolds's Pushing Ice, a group of comet harvesters discover that Janus (a moon of Saturn) is a spacecraft.

• In the second revival of The Twilight Zone, the name Janus was used for the main character as she puts on her dead husband's glasses to reveal his killer who turns out to be herself all along--implying that she has lived a double life.

• Batman villain Two-Face has used the alias Janus. Similarly, Two-Face's ex-wife is also now married to a man named Paul Janus.

• Batman: The Animated Series contains two references, both related to Two-Face: When Maxie Zeus is captured and sent to Arkham Asylum, he refers to several known Batman villains as Greek gods, and calls Two-Face "Janus"(which is Roman not Greek). In a later episode, Two-Face uses the abandoned Janus Theater as a hideout.

• Two monsters in Final Fantasy XI have names relating to Janus, such as 'Bifrons' and the Demon 'Count Bifrons'.

• Benji Schwimmer's mock band, Sreattlands, wrote a song called Janus.

• In the Incredible Hulk episode "Death Mask" when David is being interrogated his interrogater contrasts himself with Janus saying he could not be two-faced; could not be a good cop - bad cop

• Polish town Ełk had a coat of arms with the Janus two-faced head until 1967.

• In the HBO/BBC TV series Rome, the character Titus Pullo prays to Forculus, a related god to Janus to free him from a locked cart in which he has been imprisoned. Lucius Vorenus and his family later pray to Janus when starting a new business.

• In the original Japanese version of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, a monster that lights the way in the Catacombs is called Bifrons, which is an alternate name for Janus. This was changed to Lossoth in the European and American release.

• In the popular computer game "Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines" the NPC character Jeanette/Therese/Tourette Voerman is referred to as a "Daughter of Janus", referring to her split personality. This is only a dialogue option if you are playing a Malkavian character.

• In the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" episode "Halloween" the character Ethan Rayne prays to a bust of Janus in order to bring about a spell that turns everyone into the personification of their halloween costumes. The spell is broken by the bust being smashed.

• In the video game Chrono Trigger, there is a boy named Janus who predicts when people will die. This same boy later turns out to be a powerful mage, a character who you can get to join your party.

• In Frans de Waal's book Our Inner Ape the behavioral tendencies of bonobos and chimpanzees are likened to a Janus head, with humans (equally close genetically to each species) able to act in either direction.

• In Monday Begins on Saturday, a science fiction novel by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, a character named Janus Poluektovich Nevstruev is known to be one man in two personas, called A-Janus and U-Janus.

• The name of the ski resort of Vaujany in the French Alps comes from the Latin Via-Janus, the road of Janus. It is below a pass linking the ancient Duchy of Savoy from the Dauphiné province.[1]

• Janus Talon is the name of a fictitious Star Wars character. He dealt with the duality of the Force, and had to understand both sides of it.

• In the D20 Modern Roleplaying game, a cult known as the Children of Chaos worship Janus.

• In Elizabeth Winthrop's Children's Novel, The Castle in the Attic, Janus appears on the two magic tokens. Each Token has one of Janus's faces on it.

• In the novel The Two Faces of Tomorrow by James P. Hogan, a project to determine if a complex computer system controlling the earth would be beneficial or devastating to mankind if it evolved intelligence, is named Janus after the God.

• The novel Unleashing Janus by Ted David Harris tracks the struggle between a secret hacker society and a covert government agency for control of a conscious machine codenamed "Janus".

• The game Imperian, published by Iron Realms Entertainment has a deity called Janus as the God of the Seasons.

• The novel Janus Man by Colin Forbes is a story about a British counter-espionage organisation trying to flush out a traitor from amongst their own agents. In the novel he is said to be working for (or looking) both east and west.

The Gunslinger is a novel by American author Stephen King, and is the first volume in the Dark Tower series, which King considers to be his magnum opus. ... For other uses, see The Dark Tower. ... For other persons named Stephen King, see Stephen King (disambiguation). ... Sun Ra (Born Herman Poole Blount; legal name Le Sonyr Ra;[1] born May 22, 1914 in Birmingham, Alabama, died May 30, 1993 in Birmingham, Alabama) was an innovative jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his cosmic philosophy, musical compositions and performances. ... DC Comics is an American comic book and related media company. ... Darkseid is a fictional comic book supervillain in the DC Comics Universe. ... For other uses, see Wonder Woman (disambiguation). ... In the DC Comics fictional shared Universe, Apokolips was the planet ruled by Darkseid, established in Jack Kirbys Fourth World series. ... Stargate Atlantis (often abbreviated as SGA) is an American-Canadian science fiction television program, part of the Stargate franchise owned by MGM. Developed by longtime SG-1 producers Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper, it is a spin-off from the television series Stargate SG-1. ... In the Stargate fictional universe, the Ancients, also known as the Alterans and Lanteans, are the most advanced race known to have existed, having evolved millions of years prior to the present day and reaching their level of technology long before Human life evolved on Earth. ... The Ancients, also known as the Alterans and Lanteans, sometimes calling themselves Anqueetas in their language, are a humanoid race in the fictional Stargate universe. ... Logo of Fendi, SpA A shop of Fendi in the Landmark, Hong Kong Fendi is an Italian fashion designer brand founded in 1918. ... Shakespeare redirects here. ... For other uses, see Othello (disambiguation). ... Othello and Iago. ... For other uses, see Othello (disambiguation). ... Arthur Koestler (September 5, 1905, Budapest – March 3, 1983, London) was a Hungarian polymath who became a naturalized British subject. ... The Roots of Coincidence, written by Arthur Koestler, is an accessible introduction to theories of parapsychology, including extra-sensory perception and psychokinesis. ... A holon (from the Greek holos = whole and on = entity) is something that is simultaneously a whole and a part. ... Janus: A Summing Up is a book by Arthur Koestler, in which he develops his philosophical idea of Holarchies. ... Bruno Latour Bruno Latour (born June 1947, Beaune, France) is a French sociologist of science best known for his books We Have Never Been Modern, Laboratory Life, and Science in Action, describing the process of scientific research from the perspective of social construction based on field observations of working scientists. ... Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society (ISBN 0-674-79291-2) is an influential book by Bruno Latour. ... For other uses, see Goldeneye (disambiguation). ... Janus Films is a film distribution company. ... Spycraft is a d20-based roleplaying game dealing with superspies and modern action. ... This article is about the comics published in East Asian countries. ... This article is about the writer. ... Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Angels and Demons Angels and Demons (Angels & Demons) is a bestselling mystery novel by Dan Brown. ... This article is about the film. ... Judge Dredd is a 1995 action film based on the Judge Dredd strip in the British comic 2000 AD. Certain elements of the film were altered from the comic series, but it still did not find wide mainstream appeal. ... For the 1995 film, see Judge Dredd (film). ... Judge Judy Janus is a fictional character, a Judge within Mega-City Ones Justice Departments PSI Division. ... Alastair Reynolds (born in 1966 in Barry, South Wales) is a Welsh science fiction author. ... Pushing Ice is a 2005 science fiction novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds (ISBN 0575074388). ... Janus (jay-nus, IPA: , Greek Ιανός) is an inner satellite of Saturn. ... The Twilight Zone title. ... Batman (originally referred to as the Bat-Man and still referred to at times as the Batman) is a DC Comics fictional superhero who first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939. ... Two-Face is a fictional character, a supervillain and enemy of Batman in the DC Comics Universe. ... The animated Batman shoots his grappling gun from a rooftop in a scene from the episode, On Leather Wings. ... Maximillian Maxie Zeus is a fictional character in the DC Comics universe. ... The Incredible Hulk The Hulk, often called The Incredible Hulk, is a Marvel Comics superhero. ... EÅ‚k (former Polish name: Łęg, German Lyck) is a town in north-eastern Poland with 60000 inhabitants (2000). ... A modern coat of arms is derived from the medi val practice of painting designs onto the shield and outer clothing of knights to enable them to be identified in battle, and later in tournaments. ... Year 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the 1967 Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see HBO (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see BBC (disambiguation). ... Rome is a multiple Emmy Award-winning historical drama, produced in Italy for television by the BBC (UK), HBO (USA), and RAI (Italy). ... The Historical Pullo Titus Pullo (given as T. Pulfio in some translations) was one of the two soldiers of the 11th Legion (Legio XI prior to its demobilization and subsequent remobilization by Caesar Augustus - see also here) mentioned in the personal writings of Julius Caesar. ... Lucius Vorenus (given as L. Varenus in some translations) was one of the two soldiers of the 11th Legion (Legio XI prior to its demobilization and subsequent remobilization by Caesar Augustus - see also here) mentioned in the personal writings of Julius Caesar. ... Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (SOTN) is a Japanese action-adventure game developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo and published by Konami for the Sony PlayStation video game console. ... lolbifrons ... Janus may refer to: Janus (mythology), the two-faced god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings, and endings in Roman mythology Janus (moon), a moon of Saturn Janus Patera, a shallow volcanic crater on Io, a moon of Jupiter Janus (simulation), a military combat simulation first developed in the late 1970s... For other uses, see Europe (disambiguation). ... Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is a role-playing computer game played from the first-person shooter perspective and is developed by Troika Games using Valve Softwares Source engine. ... This article is about the album by Cassidy. ... The Malkavians are a fictional clan of vampires from White Wolf Game Studios books, role-playing games Vampire: The Masquerade and, Vampire: The Dark Ages. ... For other uses, see Buffy the Vampire Slayer (disambiguation). ... Chrono Trigger ) is a console role-playing game developed and published by Square (now Square Enix) for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game console. ... Frans B.M. de Waal, PhD (b. ... For other uses, see Bonobo (disambiguation). ... Binomial name (Blumenbach, 1775) distribution of Common Chimpanzee. ... Monday Begins on Saturday (Russian: Понедельник начинается в субботу) is a 1964 science fiction novel by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky. ... Boris and Arkady Strugatsky The two brothers Arkady (Арка́дий, August 28, 1925 – October 12, 1991) and Boris (Бори́с, born April 14, 1933) Strugatsky (Струга́цкий; alternate spelling: Strugatski) are Russian science fiction authors who collaborated on their fiction. ... The French Alps are simply those parts of the Alps mountain range which lie in France. ... For other uses, see Latin (disambiguation). ... For the earlier history of Savoy, see County of Savoy. ... Flag of the Dauphiné Dauphiné (Occitan : Daufinat, Arpitan : Dôfenâ, archaic English: ), usually referred to as the Dauphiné, is a former province in southeastern France, roughly corresponding to the present departments of the Isère (Isera), Drôme (Drôma), and Hautes-Alpes (Hiôtas-Arpes). ... This article is about the series. ... For other uses, see Force (disambiguation). ...

See also

Diprosopus congenital defect, a rare craniofacial duplication condition Diprosopus, also known as craniofacial duplication, is an extremely rare form of conjoined twins whereby there is a near complete fusion of bodies but part or all of the face is duplicated on the head. ...

External links

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Janus (mythology)

• Janus
• Translation of Ovid's Fasti, a section on January, and Janus