Janus Roman God Pendant

A beautiful sterling silver 925 copy of an ancient roman coin of the Roman God Janus.
The perfect gift for people who love ancient history.

About Janus
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings.
He is usually depicted as having two faces.
The month of January is named for Janus (Ianuarius).
The name of the god Iānus, meaning in Latin ‘arched passage, doorway.
According to ancient Roman farmers’ almanacs, Juno was mistaken as the tutelary deity of the month of January, but Juno is the tutelary deity of the month of June.

Janus presided over the beginning and ending of conflict, and hence war and peace.
The gates of a building in Rome named after him (not a temple, as it is often called, but an open enclosure with gates at each end) were opened in time of war, and closed to mark the arrival of peace.
As a god of transitions, he had functions pertaining to birth and to journeys and exchange, and in his association with Portunus, a similar harbor and gateway god, he was concerned with travelling, trading and shipping.

Janus frequently symbolized change and transitions such as the progress of past to future, from one condition to another, from one vision to another, and young people’s growth to adulthood.
He represented time because he could see into the past with one face and into the future with the other.
Janus was worshipped at the beginnings of the harvest and planting times, as well as at marriages, deaths and other beginnings.
He represented the middle ground between barbarism and civilization, rural and urban space, youth and adulthood.
Having jurisdiction over beginnings Janus had an intrinsic association with omens and auspices.