5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.
The Romans worshipped their gods as guardians of the state, the home, and war, identifying many of them with Greek deities. The official cult was led by colleges of priests and by the emperor himself, with temples in the heart of Rome. Their religion followed the Empire's expansion across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.
The December Saturnalia reversed social roles in days of feasting and gifts, and the Lupercalia purified the city in February. The Vestal Virgins guarded Vesta's sacred fire, and victorious generals paraded in triumph to the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.
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At a glance
Janus (Latin: Ianus) stands as one of the most distinctive and venerable deities of archaic Roman religion, entirely lacking any counterpart or analogue within the Greek pantheon. Revered as the primordial god of all transitions, beginnings, endings, doorways (ianuae), vaulted passageways (iani), and cycles of time, Janus embodies the liminal threshold connecting past and future, interior and exterior, war and peace. His unique physiognomy featuring two opposed faces (Janus Bifrons or Geminus) endowed him with omniscient vision, allowing him to contemplate simultaneously what lies behind and what lies ahead. In Roman liturgical theology, Janus held absolute ritual precedence (prima invocatio): no public prayer, state sacrifice, or civic assembly dedicated to any deity—including Jupiter Optimus Maximus himself—could commence without Janus being addressed and honored first with wine libations and offerings of the sacred cake called ianual, for he alone possessed the celestial keys capable of unlocking the gates of heaven so that the gods might receive mortal petitions. The physical focal point of his civic cult was the shrine of Ianus Geminus, a small quadrangular bronze structure situated along the Argiletum at the northeastern entrance to the Roman Forum, traditionally founded by King Numa Pompilius. Its double bronze doors stood permanently open whenever Roman legions were engaged in foreign military campaigns, serving as a mystical conduit ensuring divine protection for the soldiers, and were ritually closed only when universal peace reigned throughout all Roman territories. The first month of the reformed Roman civil calendar, January (Ianuarius), was consecrated to him as the sacred gateway to the solar year, upon which newly elected consuls and magistrates entered office under his auspicious guardianship.
The two faces, the key, the staff and the doorway arch
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Family
Janus
Unions
Carna (nymph of door hinges and protector of thresholds, endowed by Janus with authority over hinges)Juturna or Camise (archaic Italic traditions cited by antiquarian writers and poets as mother of Fontus)
Children
Fontus (god of sacred springs and wells, celebrated at the Fontinalia festival)
Genealogy according to Ovídio (Fastos I.63–288, VI.101–130; Metamorfoses XIV.775–804); Lívio (Ab Urbe Condita I.19, VIII.9); Varrão (De Lingua Latina V.165, VII.26–27); Cícero (De Natura Deorum II.67); Virgílio (Eneida VII.601–622, VIII.357); Horácio (Sátiras II.6.20); Macróbio (Saturnalia I.7, I.9); Plínio (Naturalis Historia XXXIV.33); Augusto (Res Gestae 13); Dumézil (1970); Holland (1961); Coarelli (1983)
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Sources and further reading
Primary sources
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Studies
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Name and epithets
The Latin theonym Ianus derives from the Proto-Indo-European verbal root *h₁ey- or *ei- ('to go', 'to walk', 'to pass'), which directly yielded the classical Latin verb ire ('to go').
In the ancient sources
Fasti, c. AD 8. Ovid presents a personal dialogue with Janus explaining his two faces, his role at New Year, the boiling water miracle at the Argiletum, and the Carna episode. Ab Urbe Condita, c. 27–9 BC.
The myths
The Scalding Torrent of the Argiletum and the Repulse of the Sabines. As recounted by Ovid in Book I of the Fasti (lines 259–276) and Book XIV of the Metamorphoses (lines 775–804), as well as Macrobius in the Saturnalia…
Worship and archaeology
The liturgical service of Janus held a foundational structural status within the Roman state religion. Under the doctrine of the prima invocatio, all public sacrifices, oaths, and magistral deliberations opened with an…
How the god was depicted
Roman art developed an unmistakable visual iconography for Janus centered upon his bifrontal anatomy (Janus Bifrons).
What scholars debate
. Modern historiographical and anthropological analysis of Janus was profoundly reshaped by Georges Dumézil's comparative research in Archaic Roman Religion (1970).
After antiquity
The cultural archetype and visual image of Janus remain deeply ingrained in Western science, philosophy, and everyday language.
Did you know?
The closing of the bronze doors of the Temple of Janus at the Argiletum was so rare that in the seven centuries separating Numa Pompilius from Augustus, the doors were recorded as having been closed only twice: in 235 B…
Codex relic
Key and Staff of Gateways. The key that opens and closes the doors of time, of war, and of every new beginning.
The rest of this scroll is sealed
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