1st January: Janus

Following on from Hecate yesterday, the goddess of crossroads, doorways and places in between, today we have Janus, the Roman god of beginnings. Welcome to 2017.

1. Janus is usually depicted as having two faces, one looking forward and one looking back, signifying that he can see both the past and the future.
2. His sphere of influence encompasses Beginnings, doors, gates, roadways, passageways, birth, travel, trading and shipping. He's also associated with omens and auspices.
3. He is thought to be one of the oldest of the Roman gods, and the one responsible for lifting man out of his savage state and into civilization.
4. He was certainly a very important god in Roman times. Not only was he honoured and worshiped at the beginnings of things - the new year, planting of crops, weddings, and so on, he was worshiped first at every ritual performed for any reason. No matter which other god was being invoked or prayed to, the ceremony always started with an invocation to Janus. Incidentally, every ceremony would end with a corresponding invocation to Vesta, goddess of hearth and home. The rule was "Janus primus and Vesta extrema".
5. Not only that, but instead of having dedicated priests, the King of the Sacred Rites (rex sacrorum) himself presided over the rites of Janus.
6. The symbols of Janus are a key and a staff.
7. Janus is unusual in that, unlike other Roman gods, he has no Greek equivalent.
8. Janus was thought to have introduced the practice of minting coins to the Romans and his effigy is found on many Roman coins.
9. The beginning and endings of wars were part of Janus' domain. The doors of his temple were open when there was a war on, and closed in times of peace. In Roman times, there was pretty much always a war on, so the doors weren't closed very often. Sacrifices and rituals to forecast the outcome of the war would be held in the temple. In peacetime, the doors were closed to contain the spirit of war inside and preserve the peace.
10. The month of January is named after Janus. Another English word which derives from his name is "janitor", which derives from the Latin word for door, "ianua", which in turn comes from the name of the god.