January - The Legend of Janus

Did you know that the month of January is named after the Roman god, Janus?  Janus was the god of concrete, gates, doors, doorways, beginnings and endings.

Janus symbolizes the beginning of the world, the start of human life, new historical ages, change and transition from the past to the future, of growing up, and of celebrating the beginnings of important events in a person's life.

Janus is depicted as having two faces or two heads, facing in opposite directions because, according to legend, as a reward for his generous hospitality, the god Saturn, granted Janus the gift to see both the future and the past.  Hence, Janus was worshipped at the beginning of the harvest and planting times, as well as marriages, births and other beginnings.  He represented the middle ground between barbarity and civilization, rural country and urban cities, and youth and adulthood.

It was said that he came from Thessaly and that he was welcomed by a goddess named Camese in Latium, where they shared a kingdom.  They married and had several children, among which was the river god Tiberinus (after whom the river Tiber is named). When his wife died, Janus became the sole ruler of Latium. He sheltered Saturn when he was fleeing from Jupiter. 

Janus, as the first king of Latium, brought the people a time of peace and welfare; the Golden Age. He introduced money, cultivation of the fields, and the laws. After his death he was deified and became the protector of Rome.

When Romulus and his associates stole the Sabine Virgins, the Sabines attacked Rome.  The daughter of one of the guards on the Capitolian Hill betrayed her fellow countrymen and guided the enemy into the city. They attempted to climb the hill but Janus made a hot spring erupt from the ground, and the would-be attackers fled from the city.  The Ianus geminus, a passage ritually opened at times of war, and shut again when Roman arms rested, was named after him.  It formed a walled enclosure with gates at each end, situated in the Roman Forum.  During times of wars, the gates of the Janus were opened, and in its interior sacrifices and vaticinia were held to forecast the outcome of military deeds.  The doors were closed only during peacetime, an extremely rare event.

In the Middle Ages, Janus became the symbol of Genoa, whose Latin name was Ianua, as well as of other European communes.

Article resources: 

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/j/janus.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janus