Hello everyone Prime here and I hope that
you’re having a great day because today
we’ll be covering your favourite God of
portals and transitions, his purpose, relationships,
story and some other stuff for good measure.
With that said let’s get into this.
Bio/features
As the God of beginnings, transitions gates,
doorways (Januae), archways (Jani), endings
and time in Romanian religion Janus is chap
with two faces, one a young handsome young
man the other a beard and older gentlemen
and each face is positioned opposite to one
another.
This can be referred to as Janus Geminus (twin
Janus) or Bifrons. One face is said to look
toward the past and the other the future.
In some areas of Roman worship Janus was revered
as a God with four faces, Janus quadrifrons
(the four faced).
Now from the images and statues that I’ve
found of Janus he appears to be just as human
looking as say Zeus or Apollo or Athena. But
considering Hi rez’s take on his appearance
(which I really like by the way) works, what
with him being a Roman God of time and all.
It would be interesting to see how if at all
they’d be willing to give Jan droid a human
look for skin though I’m they had their
reasons for making Janus a badass robot with
portals.
Purpose
Unlike a lot of the Gods in Roman and Greek
mythology Janus is specifically a Roman God
which is a bit sad. But Janus is considered
to be quite an important God indeed. Some
of his exact functions are a bit ambiguous
but in today’s age Janus is believed to
have been a sort of watcher over beginnings
and transition be they physical or ideological.
He’s often linked to movement and as a God
of motion he is responsible for the starting
of actions he is indeed the mechanise that
allows begins of any type at all to exist.
His two faces represent his importance in
his roles in movement and change. Beginning
also synonymous with beginnings Janus existed
in the beginning of life where he was considered
to be a guardian of heaven.
He even presided over religion’s very creation
and even the gods himself which might actually
bring some things into question later but
we’ll get to that. But because he had so
many responsibilities and connections to all
of these things the romans had to invoke him
before all other Gods whether they intended
to pray to Venus for a successful marriage
or Minerva for Wisdom.
Janus’ work allowed Jupiter roman God of
the sky, majorly important to the roman religion
better known as Zeus to well function so yeah
important chap Janus even if you don’t really
get that sense from his smite character (which
we all love).
Relationships
Saturn better known as Cronus was the king
of the Gods but one day heard of a tale that
saw his demise at the hands of one of his
own children. Not liking this one bit Cronus
decided to chomp away on Ceres, Veritas, Pluto,
Neptune, June and Vesta.
Rhea his wife didn’t take to kindly to the
idea of having her babies turned into meals
just after they were born and so hid one of
the children, instead feeding papa Saturn
a stone which chomped down all the same.
When this child Jupiter returned he promptly
gave Saturn an L making the former king flee
to Latium for his life. He made friends with
Janus introducing agriculture and ushering
in a period of peace. The Golden age if you
will which again Saturn ruled.
During this time, all human beings were equal,
with no distinctions of any kind made between
classes. Of course him ruling are being usurped
is more of a Roman myth than it is a Greek
one.
Janus pretty much always being first you could
say in a way is linked to Vesta the Goddess
of hearth, the home and domestic life. She
is typically the last God mentioned in a prayer
so there’s that.
Janus had a few children with his wife Camasene/Camise
one of which was Tiberinus who had a river
named Tiber after him.
In some tales Janus is said to have an extra
eye which allowed him to catch the illusive
Carna or Crane who was famous for teasing
her partners with certain advances before
fleeing into the air. Janus had a son with
her who became the King of Alba Longa.
Mythology/story
So Janus being one of the most important Gods
in Roman mythology had to rule something and
he did alongside a Roman king Camesus. He
was for some reason exiled but entered Rome
with his wife Camise (I swear the spelling
of her name changes faster than British weather)
and her children. After his wife died Janus
became the kingdom’s sole ruler.
It didn’t take him long to build a city
named Janiculum and he ruled Latium after
the death of Camesus for many years in peace.
With Saturn the humans that basked in the
glorious golden age never aged.
Janus whilst he was alive was never once defied
by his people however upon his death however
he was.
In another myth Romulus of Rome who named
the city after himself kidnapped Sabine virgin
women and Rome was attacked. The daughter
of one of the guards betrayed her countrymen
by guiding the attackers into the city. They
were about to do some climbing up and over
the city wall when a hot spring suddenly erupted
scalding the aggressors with boiling water
and volcanic ash. This was the work of Janus
and because of it the doors of the temple
of Janus were left open always come times
of war which is why it’s nice of Hi rez
to include this line as Janus loads into a
game “Come times of war my doors are always
open”.
Facts
Janus introduced money and laws into his city
Janiculum which means the city of Janus.
January is named after Janus and the 9th is
a special day for him.
During times of peace Janus’ temple doors
were always closed those times came around
rarely.
