Janus

Roman tradition. See the whole pantheon.

Domains: doorways, beginnings, war and peace
Symbols and attributes: Two faces; the gates of his temple

Giacomo Caneva, photograph of a statue of Jupiter in the Campana collection, 1850s.

Key myth

A god with no Greek counterpart: invoked first in any prayer. His temple's doors stood open in war and were closed in peace; Augustus boasted of closing them three times. January is named for him.

Where sources differ or caution applies. A Roman original; Ovid's Fasti is the fullest source.

Primary sources

Ovid, Fasti I
Livy I.19

All sources for the Roman pantheon

Place in the family graph

Choose a deity to see where it comes from. Dashed lines are links the sources describe that are not parent and child.

More traditions

Odin rides to Hel, W. G. Collingwood, after the Poetic Edda.

Elsewhere in the world

Deities in other traditions who share a theme with Janus: trickery, boundaries and travel, creation and first beings. This is overlap in one area only.

Norse