{"id":4627,"date":"2011-01-01T01:10:34","date_gmt":"2011-01-01T06:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=4691"},"modified":"2010-12-22T18:21:00","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T23:21:00","slug":"myths-and-legends-journeys-through-time-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2011\/01\/01\/myths-and-legends-journeys-through-time-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Myths and Legends: Journeys Through Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Janus<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Janus_15984_lg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Have you ever had a moment where you feel as if you’re looking forward to whatever the<\/p>\n

future may bring yet at the same time, looking back as to what the past has brought?\u00a0 Or have<\/p>\n

you ever sat around on New Year’s Eve contemplating the coming new year while reminiscing<\/p>\n

about the past year?\u00a0 January is the first month of the year and it’s named after a Roman god<\/p>\n

named Janus. Janus is one of the more….interesting gods in the Roman pantheon. He’s just<\/p>\n

as if not more important than Jupiter, who is the ruler of all the gods. In Greek mythology<\/p>\n

Jupiter’s counterpart is Zeus, Janus however has no Greek counterpart. The closest Greek<\/p>\n

mythology comes to having a counterpart for Janus is two-faced god similar to the god<\/p>\n

Hermes. Two faced…yes Janus is most often depicted as having two faces. One looking<\/p>\n

forward in time, to the future and all things coming, and the other looking back into times,<\/p>\n

to the past and all things that have happened. In Roman mythology Janus is considered the<\/p>\n

god of beginnings, gates, doorways, marriages, the harvest, deaths…any event or time in a<\/p>\n

person’s life where the was a new beginning, an end or change. Originally though, Janus was<\/p>\n

the patron of the concrete and abstract beginnings of the world, human life, new historical<\/p>\n

ages and economical enterprises. Also in his original depiction, he was the patron of home<\/p>\n

entrances, gates, bridges, covered and arched passageways. One version of the mythology<\/p>\n

holds that Janus originally came from Thessaly and was welcomed into Latium by Carmese<\/p>\n

who later became his wife. By Carmese he had several children one of them being Tiberinus<\/p>\n

who’s the namesake for the river Tiber. When Carmese died, Janus became the sole ruler of<\/p>\n

Latium. When Saturn (The Roman counterpart to the Greek Titan Kronos) was fleeing from<\/p>\n

his son Jupiter, it was Janus that offered him a place of shelter. Janus was the first king of<\/p>\n

Latium and as such, he brought about many things. One of the things that he brought was a<\/p>\n

time of peace and change which is also known as the Golden Age. He introduced money,<\/p>\n

agriculture and the laws. In a sense you could say he was responsible for making Rome<\/p>\n

civilized. When Janus died he was deified. Basically..he was made a deity and became<\/p>\n

the protector of Rome. When Romulous stole the Sabine virgins and the Sabines attacked<\/p>\n

Rome as a result, Janus became known for one thing. The daughter of one of the guards<\/p>\n

decided to betray he fellow countrymen and guided the Sabines to the city. When they<\/p>\n

attempted to climb the hill, Janus caused a hot spring to erupt from said hill. The Sabines<\/p>\n

fled and ever since then, the gates of Janus’ temple were kept open in war times so that he<\/p>\n

could come and help whenever needed. Whenever there’s peace the gates of his temple are<\/p>\n

closed. January is named after Janus because on December 31 we celebrate New Year’s Eve<\/p>\n

and at midnight we say goodbye to the old year and hello to the new year. At this time a<\/p>\n

person is effectively looking forward while looking back. Janus may have been a two faced<\/p>\n

god but he was a two faced god in a very good way.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Janus<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.loggia.com\/myth\/janus.html<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.pantheon.org\/articles\/j\/janus.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Janus Have you ever had a moment where you feel as if you’re looking forward to whatever the future may bring yet at the same time, looking back as to what the past has brought?\u00a0 Or have you ever sat around on New Year’s Eve contemplating the coming new year while reminiscing about the past year?\u00a0 January is the first month of the year and it’s named after a Roman god named Janus. Janus is one of the more….interesting gods in the Roman pantheon. He’s just as if not more important than Jupiter, who is the ruler of all the gods. In Greek mythology Jupiter’s counterpart is Zeus, Janus however has no Greek counterpart. The closest Greek mythology comes to having a counterpart for Janus is two-faced god similar to the god Hermes. Two faced…yes Janus is most often depicted as having two faces. One looking forward in time, to the future and all things coming, and the other looking back into times, to the past and all things that have happened. In Roman mythology Janus is considered the god of beginnings, gates, doorways, marriages, the harvest, deaths…any event or time in a person’s life where the was a new beginning, an end or change. Originally though, Janus was the patron of the concrete and abstract beginnings of the world, human life, new historical ages and economical enterprises. Also in his original depiction, he was the patron of home entrances, gates, bridges, covered and arched passageways. One version of the mythology holds that Janus originally came from Thessaly and was welcomed into Latium by Carmese who later became his wife. By Carmese he had several children one of them being Tiberinus who’s the namesake for the river Tiber. When Carmese died, Janus became the sole ruler of Latium. When Saturn (The Roman counterpart to the Greek Titan Kronos) was fleeing from his son Jupiter, it was Janus that offered him a place of shelter. Janus was the first king of Latium and as such, he brought about many things. One of the things that he brought was a time of peace and change which is also known as the Golden Age. He introduced money, agriculture and the laws. In a sense you could say he was responsible for making Rome civilized. When Janus died he was deified. Basically..he was made a deity and became the protector of Rome. When Romulous stole the Sabine virgins and the Sabines attacked Rome as a result, Janus became known for one thing. The daughter of one of the guards decided to betray he fellow countrymen and guided the Sabines to the city. When they attempted to climb the hill, Janus caused a hot spring to erupt from said hill. The Sabines fled and ever since then, the gates of Janus’ temple were kept open in war times so that he could come and help whenever needed. Whenever there’s peace the gates of his temple are closed. January is named after Janus because on December 31 we celebrate New Year’s Eve and at midnight we say goodbye to the old year and hello to the new year. At this time a person is effectively looking forward while looking back. Janus may have been a two faced god but he was a two faced god in a very good way. http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Janus http:\/\/www.loggia.com\/myth\/janus.html http:\/\/www.pantheon.org\/articles\/j\/janus.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4627\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}