Monday, 1 January 2018

Janus

Janus is a Roman deity.  No Greek equivalent for Janus.  So, Janus is a typical Roman god.  An interesting one too.  He is usually represented with 2 faces.  He is the god of doors, gates and boundaries and the month January is name after him.  He have to do with everything that can be a limit, boundary and line.  I guess he could be the god of a country borders too.

He is not a well known god but he is an interesting one.  The Ancient Greek does not have an equilvalent.  Ancient Greek only have the herms that are put into fields, to put the limits to them.  The herms are from Hermes, adding to Hermes long list of to do list.  Hermes is a Jack of all trade type of god but he is terribly busy.  Janus have the leasure to be a bit more causial and concentrating on doors, windows, borders offices, fences, city limits and all the like.

Ancient Roman have their own gods.  They just liked to borrow other pantheons and incorporate them into rheir Roman one.  Janus had the merit to remain without equivalent.  Ancient Romans should had kept a few more deities like that.  They sure have original concepts.
There is an article on Encyclopedia Mythica on Janus: http://www.pantheon.org/articles/j/janus.html

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