Janus
JANUS. According to most linguists, the word ianus seems to be based upon the root iā, which constitutes an extension of the Indo-European root ei- ("to go"). This abstract term, signifying "passage," alternates between the stem form -u- and the stem form -o-. From the first are formed the derivatives Ianuarius ("January"), ianu-al (a biscuit reserved for Janus), and ianu-a ("door"). From the second comes iani-tor ("porter"), Iani-culum (Janiculum Hill), and Iani-gena (daughter of Janus). In the Roman pantheon Janus is an original figure who has no Greek homologue (Ovid, Fasti 1.90). The Etruscan name Ani, which appears on the sculpture of an augur's liver found at Piacenza, is a borrowing from either Latin or an Italian dialect. Because, as Cicero emphasizes (De natura deorum 2.67), the god embodies the motive of "passage," it is characteristic of him to be at the beginning, in line with the scholar Varro's definition cited by Augustine (City of God 7.9): "To Janus comes everything that begins, to Jupiter everything that culminates" ("Penes Ianum sunt prima, penes Ioven summa").
This primacy is verified in the liturgy: Janus is invoked first in ceremonies. On the same basis he is patron, along with Juno (whence his epithet Iunonius), of all the calends. The first member of the priestly corps, the rex sacrorum ("king of the sacrifices"), offers him a sacrifice at the beginning of each month (Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.15.10). In the same way, the first official sacrifice of each year, the Agonium of January 9, is directed to Janus. Sculpted images of him with two faces—corresponding, according to the interpretations, to opening and closing or to past and future—gained for him the names of Janus Bifrons ("with double forehead"), Janus Biceps ("two-headed"), and Janus Geminus ("twin").
Other qualificatives have functional value. Thus tradition points to Janus Curiatius, who must have presided over a rite of passage of young men into the tribal subgroups called curiae, and to Janus Quirinus, mentioned in the "royal laws" as associated with the time when the third share of the spolia opima was allotted to the god Quirinus (Festus, ed. Lindsay, 1913, p. 204 L.). This last is the most ancient title given to Janus, who sits in the old Forum in the "ancient sanctuary provided with an altar" (Ovid, Fasti 1.275). According to whether its doors were shut or open, he "indicated the state of peace or war" (Livy, 1.19.2). Augustus, who restored this cult to a place of honor, boasted of having closed the temple on three occasions (Res gestae 13). This explains the appellation of Janus Quirinus: He is the god who presides over the passage from war to peace. This is the poet Horace's interpretation when he illustrates the "Quirinal" orientation of Janus by the expression "Ianus Quirini" (Odes 4.15.9), which he takes up elsewhere in a more prosaic and explicit phrase, "Janus, the guardian of peace" (Epistles 2.1.255).
Bibliography
Dumézil, Georges. Archaic Roman Religion. 2 vols. Translated by Philip Krapp. Chicago, 1970.
Gagé, Jean. Augustus, Emperor of Rome, 63 B.C.–14 A.D.: Res Gestae divi Augusti. Paris, 1977.
Schilling, Robert. Rites, cultes, dieux de Rome. Paris, 1979. See pages 220–262 on Janus.
Wissowa, Georg. Religion und Kultus der Römer. 2d ed. Munich, 1912. See pages 103–113.
New Sources
Briquel, Dominique. "Le Fanum Voltumnae: remarques sur le culte fédéral des cités étrusques." In Dieux, fêtes, sacré dans la Grèce et la Rome antiques, edited by André Motte and Charles M. Ternes, pp. 133–159. Turnhout, 2003.
Capdeville, Gérard. "Les épithètes cultuelles de Janus." Mélanges École Française Rome 85 (1973): 395–436.
Gagé, Jean. "Sur les origines du culte de Janus." Revue d'Histoire des Religions 195 (1979): 3–33 and 129–151.
Pfligersdorffer Georg. "Ovidius Empedocleus. Zu Ovids Ianus-Deutung." Grazer Beiträge 1 (1973): 177–209.
Richard, Jean-Claude. "Ion-Janus ou de l'anonymat. À propos d'IGR, 2, 1–4." In Hommages à Henri Le Bonniec. Res sacrae, edited by Danielle Porte and Jean Pierre Néraudau, pp. 387–394. Brussels, 1988.
Simon, Erika. "Ianus Curiatius und Ianus Geminus im frühen Rom." In Beitrage zur altitalischen Geistesgeschichte. Festschrift Gerhard Radke, pp. 269–297. Münster, 1986.
Simon, Erika. "Culsu, Culsans e Ianus." In Atti del Secondo congresso internazionale etrusco (Firenze 26 maggio–2 giugno 1985), pp. 1271–1281. Rome, 1989.
Syme, Ronald. "Problems about Janus." American Journal of Philology 100 (1979): 188–212.
Thomas, Joël. "Janus, le dieu de la genèse et du passage." Euphrosyne 15 (1987): 281–296.
Turcan, Robert. "Janus à l'époque impériale." In Aufstieg und Niedergand der Römischen Welt 2.17.1, pp. 374–402. Berlin and New York, 1981.
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