JANO (Ianus). - Ancient Roman god. Although his name does not appear in the oldest Roman calendar, it is proven that the festival of January 9th, indicated by the term Agon(ium), was celebrated in his honor. This is the first festival of the solar year, just as Ianuarius (January) is its first month. This position of beginning, on the basis of which it could be said: "penes Iovem summa, penes Ianum prima," is also confirmed by other facts: all sacrifices and prayers had to begin with an invocation to G. (and end with another to Vesta).
The first day of every month is also sacred to G.: he, together with Juno, goddess of the Kalendae, as the day of the new moon, receives a sacrifice monthly: in this connection he is also called Ianus Iunonius. G. is therefore a "principium deorum," the first of the gods, "god of gods" and "good creator" (duonus cerus) as the ancient hymn of the Salii invoked him. In Roman myth this character of his will be expressed in his position as "first king" of Latium. Also the rex sacrorum — who can be considered as his particular priest (it is he who offers a ram to the god on the day of the Agonium) — is the first in the hierarchical order of Roman priests. On the earliest Roman coins (4th century B.C.) the unit, the as, bears the effigy of the god: a two-faced effigy that is proper to him in all periods. This singular type of depiction, which finds a parallel among solar gods of other peoples, together with other elements (festival, victim, etc.) sheds light on the solar nature of the god, intuited also by ancient commentators and perhaps confirmed also by the etymology of the name: today, in fact, there is a tendency to abandon the supposed derivation from the concrete term ianus, ianua (arch, door) and, without reviving, moreover, the implausible thesis of a
(D)ianus, the name of the god is explained by the Sanskrit yūna (to walk); it would be the course of the sun. The position of "beginning" (for which G. is also "matutinus") and other characteristics, such as the connection with water, emphasized especially — but not solely (cf. the dedication of a temple of his on the occasion of a naval victory; the spring near the Ianus Geminus; the prow associated with his image on the republican as) — by myth, nevertheless argue against a simplistic equation between G. and the sun. The ancient places of worship of G. are: the regia itself, where the rex sacrorum sacrifices the ram on the day of the Agonium; the tigillum sororium, on the Oppian Hill, where the cult of Ianus Curiatius is associated with that of Iuno Sororia (the cult legend is that of Horatius, victor over the Curiatii, who expiates his sororicide by passing under the tigillum; the festival is October 1); the monument, rather than temple, called Ianus Geminus: this, founded according to tradition by Numa Pompilius, was to be open as long as Rome was at war, closed in time of peace (connected with this usage was the god's double epithet Patulcius Clusius); the temple near the theater of Marcellus, founded on the occasion of the victory of Mylae (the festival of the temple coincided with the Portunalia of the ancient calendar, August 17); one may add the Ianus Quadrifrons built under Domitian: the four-faced image would have been imported from Falerii. The cult of G. is almost exclusively public. The scant private participation and the lack of Greek models determine the mythological poverty of the figure who, nevertheless, is seen as the first peaceful king of Latium, or as an all-seeing god placed in amorous relations with water goddesses, such as Iuturna and Venilia, or others, such as Carna. More than to mythology, the figure of G. lent itself to cosmogonic speculations, in which it represented the origin, the beginning of the world, similar to the Chaos (v.) of the Greeks. The name of the Janiculum (Ianiculum), his mythical seat, derives from the name of G. Perhaps even here G. had an ancient place of worship of his, forgotten.