Mythology: Janus: An Ancient Greek God

Mythology Research Essay Why are the god/goddess/demigod so important? The good/goddess and demigod are important because these figures inhabited a realm that stretched beyond the Greek landscape to the palaces of the gods on snow-capped Mount Olympus, as well as to the dismal underworld. In ancient Roman known as Janus is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, and endings. Janus is usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past. As a god of beginnings and transition both in literal and abstract ways, he was also responsible for motion, changes, and time. He was considered the most important Roman god. Janus played an important role, Romulus, one of the founders of Rome, kidnapped the Sabine women, helped by his men. Janus saved the women by creating a volcanic hot spring which erupted and buried the kidnappers in the mixture of boiling water and volcanic ash. He would save people from the past and the future because he would

Janus is usually depicted as a Roman god of choices, not Greek, thus making him first roman god to appear in the both Percy Jackson and the Olympians and heroes of Olympus. The month of January is named for him, and his festival took place on January 9, the Agonium. There were several important temples erected to Janus, and it is assumed that there was also an early cult on the Janiculum, which the ancients took to mean “the city of Janus.” Janus was frequently used to symbolize change and transition such as the progression of past to future, of one condition to another, of one vision to another, and of one universe to another. The way of the romans was to adopt various elements from other cultures and civilization’s. This included the roman religion which was highly influenced by the Ancient Greek religion and gave those Greek God names the equivalent Roman