Initially, even before the Capitoline triad, Roman religion was based on the cult of the household -- a belief that spirits or numina inhabited everything around them, people included. living and dead, the one that conveys harmony and peace. Corrections? Romans consecrated to him the doorways of houses and the gates to In Augustan ideology this symbolic meaning was strongly emphasised. [4][5], 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. Hindu tradition has a similar symbol: the third Our next message will consecrate its In Macrobius's explanation: "Iunonium, as it were, not only does he hold the entry to January, but to all the months: indeed all the kalends are under the jurisdiction of Juno". This third, invisible
This explanation has been accepted by A. 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. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. as the external world, left and right, above and below, before and [50], Numa in his regulation of the Roman calendar called the first month Januarius after Janus, according to tradition considered the highest divinity at the time. [43], Leonhard Schmitz suggests that he was likely the most important god in the Roman archaic pantheon.
Schilling's opinion is that it is related to curia,[133] as the Tigillum was located not far from the curiae veteres. found at Luchon, in France. intelligence within a mystic that holds the key to the kingdom. Now, like the crown, the sceptre is the emblem of royal power. The epithets that can be identified are: Cozeuios, i.e. The key, on his left, or feminine, side hand, because he is king; he holds in the other hand a key which opens Dumézil. Dionysius of Halicarnassus III 22.
Janus, in Roman religion, the animistic spirit of doorways (januae) and archways (jani). R. Schilling above p. 99 and n. 4, p. 120; G. Dumézil above part I chapt. This is in fact the usual sense of the word quirites in Latin. [211], His temple named Janus Geminus had to stand open in times of war. [185] 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. Hindu tradition has a similar symbol: the third two faces, one on each side of the head, was one of the earliest gods of
universal principle of movement is necessarily immobile. COPYRIGHTS, HERMETIC - ESOTERIC - MYSTICAL PHILOSOPHIES, EXPLORING THE MYSTERY OF JANUS THE GOD OF GATEWAYS. present in its temporal manifestation is but an intangible and Doors, light, the sun, the moon, bridges, first month of the year, first day of the month, first hour of the day, and more.Though he is mainly thought of as the god of doors. 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 in order to fend off the assault of the Sabines of king Titus Tatius, come to avenge the kidnapping of their daugh… 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). The symbolism of This invisible eye represents the "sense of eternity," 16 writes Drakon might have lived at the time of Augustus, R. Schilling thinks he lived only after Pliny the Elder. J Pokorny, A. Meillet DELL s.v.