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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janus_%28mythology%29
Janus (mythology)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In Roman mythology, Janus was the god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings, and endings. His most apparent remnant in modern culture is his namesake, the month of January. Though he was usually depicted with two faces looking in opposite directions (Janus Geminus (twin Janus) or Bifrons), in some places he was Janus Quadrifrons (the four-faced). The Romans associated Janus with the Etruscan deity Ani.
Janus was frequently used to symbolize change and transitions such as the progression of past to future, of one condition to another, of one vision to another, the growing up of young people, and of one universe to another. Hence, Janus was worshipped at the beginnings of the harvest and planting times, as well as marriages, births and other beginnings. He was representative of the middle ground between barbarity and civilization, rural country and urban cities, and youth and adulthood.
Janus was supposed to have come from Thessaly in Greece and he shared a kingdom with Camese in Latium. They had many children, including Tiberinus. Janus and his later wife, Juturna, were the parents of Fontus. Another wife was named Jana. Historically, however, Janus was one of the few Roman gods who had no ready-made Greek counterpart, or analogous mythology. We can find in Greece Janus-like heads of gods related to Hermes, perhaps forming a compound god: Hermathena (a herm of Athena), Hermares, Hermaphroditus, Hermanubis, Hermalcibiades, and so on. In the case of these compounds it is disputed whether they indicated a herm with the head of Athena, or with a Janus-like head of both Hermes and Athena, or a figure compounded of both deities.
As the sole ruler of Latium, Janus heralded the Golden Age, introducing money, laws and agriculture (making him a culture hero).
When Romulus and his men kidnapped the women of the Sabines, Janus caused a hot spring to erupt, causing the would-be attackers to flee. In honor of this, the doors to his temples were kept open during war so that he could easily intervene. The doors and gates were closed during peace.
His two faces (originally, one was always bearded, one clean-shaven; later both bearded) originally represented the sun and the moon. He was usually depicted with a key.
One suggested origin of the name of the Italian city of Genoa is a derivation of Janus.
Janus in popular culture
· Janus is referred in the 1995 movie adaptation of Judge Dredd. Janus is the name of the project where the DNA of all elder judges have been compounded to yield perfect Judges. However the result yielded is the perfect judge Dredd, and his DNA twin, the perfect criminal, Rico.
· In the James Bond film GoldenEye, the renegade 00-agent Alec Trevelyan secretly formed the "Janus Syndicate" with himself ("Janus") as its head. This alludes to his betrayal of MI6, as Bond remarks "so you became Janus, the two-faced Roman god come to life."
· In the film Syriana, the CEO of Connex who attempts to convince the Iranian princes into granting oil contracts is named Leland Janus, suggesting his two-faced nature.
· Britsh serial killer Ian Brady wrote a book from prison entittled: The Gates of Janus, in which he examines the nature of good and evil. The book is published by Feral House.
· In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode Halloween, Janus was the god Ethan Rayne called on to transform everyone into whatever they were dressed as.
· In the video game Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, the Malkavian character addresses both "twin" sisters as "daughters of Janus". It is later proven that the sisters are in reality the same person, but with two personalities.
· The Chrono Trigger character Magus's original name as a child was Janus.
· Janus appears as a boss in the game Shadow Hearts: Covenant. Janus also appears as a rare monster in the final dungeon in the game Shadow Hearts: From the New World.
· In the manga Ansatsu, Janus is the eighth Child in a series of bioweapons created for terrorist work.
· In Dan Brown's Angels and Demons Janus is the moniker taken by the villianous camerlengo.
· In sci-fi television show Stargate Atlantis, Janus is a member of the Atlantis Council at the time of the Ancient's evacuation back to earth. Before leaving, he helped an alternate timeline Elizabeth Weir return to her own time by telling her how to operate a stasis device against the order of the Council. He is an inventor and created at least two known time machines. One was ordered destroyed by the Lantian Council after Elizabeth Weir (along with John Sheppard and Radek Zelenka) accidentally travelled back in time 10,000 years. The other was discovered by SG-1 in the Milky Way galaxy and used to go back in time to ancient Egypt.
· In Shakespeare's play Othello, the double crossing Iago utters the words "By Janus" when lying to Othello, a play on words considering his own two faced nature
· In the second revival of The Twilight Zone, the name Janus was used for the main character as she puts on her dead husband's glasses to reveal his killer who turns out to be herself all along--implying that she has lived a double life.
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This page was last modified 20:07, 28 April 2006.
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