Janus

Article, in which, considering that today is the 1st of January, I would like to ask few questions about Janus, Ancient Roman god of beginnings (and ends), gates, transitions, time...and the god after which January was named...

So to start: Happy new beginning (and end)

Question 1: Why is Janus the god of beginnings? 

This is a valid question that I couldn't find answer to...Romans believe that he was the Primordial god with no parents. His main epithet, Pater, means that for Romans Janus was the first of the gods and thus their father...But why?

To understand this we need to look at the rights performed in honour of Janus. They were performed at the beginning of the Year, at the beginning of each month and at the beginning of each day...Nothing strange here, god of the beginnings...

Well...

First strange thing: Why was the beginning of the year celebrated on the 1st of January, after Winter Solstice which was celebrated on the 25th of December? 

Remember my post about the end of time (calendar) and the dead days? In it I talked about Lunisolar calendar which is at the base of Serbian ritual calendar. It consist of a Solar year, solar "kolo" (wheel) which is ever turning...This solar year has 12 full moons. The last full moon of the solar year ends on the 30X12=360th day. What is left are 5 "extra" days. Five days which lay outside of the "calendar" (koledar?). Five "dead days" as they are called in Serbia. 

Beginning of this 5 day period is the end of the old Solar year and the end of this 5 day period is the beginning of new Solar year. They are not the same day...In Serbia dead days are still marked as last five days before winter solstice (Christmas). In Bulgaria they marked after winter solstice (Christmas)...

Romans probably also did what Bulgarians do today...Which is a later change as Solar year is calculated from Winter Solstice to Winter solstice Solstice using full moons...

Janus had another epithet: Iunonius (Junonius). He was the patron of all kalends (moons), which were associated with Juno. Macrobius says that: "Iunonium...not only does he hold the entry to January, but to all the months...all the kalends being under the jurisdiction of Juno"...

At the time when the rising of the new moon was observed by the pontifex minor the rex sacrorum assisted by him offered a sacrifice to Janus in the Curia Calabra while the regina sacrorum sacrificed to Juno in the regia...Why?

Well because we are talking about lunisolar calendar here. 

Solar year, which starts on winter solstice, indeed holds the key to all 12 moons which comprise it...Juno does rule the moons, small "kola" (wheels)... But Janus rules both the solar year, big "kolo" (wheel) and all 12 small "kola" (calends, wheels). 

All this points at Janus being the Solar year and Juno being the lunar month...Together they create Time...And interestingly, it is this cyclic "Time", the result of the continuous oscillating, rhythmic interplay between Sun and Earth, which drives the change of seasons. And the change of seasons is what is behind all the phenomena which we built our gods from...

This is why Janus is the god of gods...

Was he seen as Sun himself? 

Well he has another interesting attribute: Janus Quadrifrons ("Janus Fourfaced")...Why? Well, interestingly Slavic sun god Svetovid (the one who alights and "sees" everything) was depicted with 4 faces... 

Is this in anyway linked? 

Well maybe...

Here is when I will ask my second question: Why is Ianus (Janus) called Ianus??? 

No one really knows...Romans couldn't agree on the meaning of his name, which means that it had no obvious etymology in Latin. 

To me this is very very strange. The primordial god, god of beginnings, the god of new solar year, the god of new calendar, the father of all gods, if he was indeed Native Roman god as they claimed, had to have name which clearly depicted his function in Latin. But he didn't...

Interestingly (again) the name of this god of new beginnings has perfect etymology in Slavic languages...Etymology which describes his role of god of new beginnings: "Ja+Nov" (pronounced as Janov, Janow, Janou) meaning "I+New"...

Now the Slavic word "nov" (new) is an ancient PIE word with cognates in every IE language, including Italic languages, where we find "*nowos". So this part could have come from some Italic language... 

But the problem is the beginning of Janus's name. In Latin, the word for I, Me is "ego", from Proto-Italic *egō,  from Proto-Indo-European *éǵh₂. If we look at the descendants of this root, we see that the only one which sounds like "Ia" (Ja) are Slavic languages...

This of course makes no sense. If this is a coincidence, this is bloody crazy coincidence:

Fourfaced epithet of Janus - Slavic 4 faced sun god
Solstice and New Year are different days - 5 dead days, days outside calends (full moons) in solar calendar of Slavic folklore
Kalend and Great Kalend - kolo wheel in Slavic, 
Janus has no Latin etymology - Janov, Janow, Janou+s (I new in Slavic), great name for the God of Beginnings

Anyone has any idea what's going on here?

In the end, there is also a hidden message in the two faced image of Janus. 

It describes the biggest predicament of humanity: inability to be in "now"...

Every moment in time is "now", the only moment in time that really exists. Yet in every one of these moments, we are either focused on the past or on the future, completely forgetting about the fact we only exist when we are focused on that ever changing "now"...

Which unfortunately results in most of us never really existing or experiencing during our journey between our beginning and our end...