Janus (Myth)

Janus (/ˈdʒeɪnəs/ JAY-nəs; Latin: Iānus [ˈi̯aːnʊs]) is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways,[2] passages, frames, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces.

The month of January is named for Janus (Ianuarius).

the immortal power couple Jana and Janus, deities that were one honored in Roman history.

The name of the god Iānus, meaning in Latin 'arched passage, doorway', stems from Proto-Italic *iānu ('door'), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ieh₂nu ('passage'). It is cognate with Sanskrit yāti ('to go, travel'), Lithuanian jóti ('to go, ride'), Irish áth ('ford'), or Serbo-Croatian jàhati ('to ride').

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.[7] Other modern scholars object to an Indo-European etymology either from Dianus or from root *yā-.[8]

From Ianus derived ianua ("door"),^[9] and hence the English word "janitor" (Latin, ianitor).

hiantem, hiare, "be open", from which the word Ianus would derive by the loss of the initial aspirate. In this etymology, the notion of Chaos would define the primordial nature of the god.

Ianus would be Apollo and Diana Iana, by the addition of a D for the sake of euphony.

Janus to the bright sky, the Sun and the Moon.

It supposes a former *Dianus, formed on *dia- < *dy-eð2 from the Indo-European root *dey- shine represented in Latin by dies day, Diovis and Iuppiter.[14] The form Dianus

Latin, deriving it from the verb ire ("to go") is based on the interpretation of Janus as the god of beginnings and transitions.

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

Janus, in Roman religion, the animistic spirit of doorways (januae) and archways (jani). Janus and the nymph Camasene were the parents of Tiberinus, whose death in or by the river Albula caused it to be renamed Tiber.

It seems the ancient Romans had a god or goddess for everything: Poseidon, god of the sea; Venus, goddess of love and beauty; and Apollo, god of the sun. (Just to name a few. Other well-known Roman gods include Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Mars, Neptune, Orcus, Ceres, Juno, Luna Diana, and Vesta.) And then there’s Janus, a lesser-known god, but arguably one of the most important.

In Roman mythology, Janus was the god of doors, gates, and transitions. Janus represented the middle ground between both concrete and abstract dualities such as life/death, beginning/end, youth/adulthood, rural/urban, war/peace, and barbarism/civilization.

Janus was known as the initiator of human life, transformations between stages of life, and shifts from one historical era to another. Ancient Romans believed Janus ruled over life events such as weddings, births, and deaths. He oversaw seasonal events such as planting, harvests, seasonal changes, and the new year.

According to Roman mythology, Janus was present at the beginning of the world. As the god of gates, Janus guarded the gates of heaven and held access to heaven and other gods. For this reason, Janus was often invoked first in ancient Roman religious ceremonies, and during public sacrifices, offerings were given to Janus before any other deity. In fact, there is evidence that Janus was worshipped long before many of the other Roman gods, dating all the way back to the time of Romulus (the founder and first ruler of Rome).

And if you’ve ever wondered how the month of January got its name, you have Janus to thank. As the Roman god of beginnings and transitions, Janus is the namesake of January, the first month of a new year.