Janus Tattoo Meaning

Thresholds, transitions, beginnings and endings, and two-faced duality.

Janus is the two-faced god of the threshold — the Roman keeper of doorways, beginnings, and endings, who gazes at once into the past and the future and presides over every passage from one state to the next. To carry Janus is to carry thresholds, transitions, beginnings and endings, and two-faced duality — the god of the doorway and the turning year, the one who looks both ways at once, the opener of all that begins.

Janus is one of the most distinctive of all Roman gods — uniquely Roman, with no Greek equivalent: the deity of doorways, beginnings, and endings, with two faces gazing into the past and the future. His very name comes from ianua, the Latin word for 'door,' and he is the god of every doorway, gate, and passage — the divine keeper of thresholds, presiding over all transitions from one place or state to another. He is depicted with two faces set back to back, one looking forward and one looking back, so that he sees both what is coming and what has been.

Janus held a special place in Roman religion. He was invoked first in nearly every rite and prayer, before even the greatest gods, because as the god of beginnings he opened the way for all that followed. The month of January is named for him, the doorway of the year. And the great gates of his temple in the Roman Forum were ceremonially open in time of war and closed in time of peace, the state of the doors marking the condition of Rome itself. The Roman Janus is thus the god of the doorway — the uniquely Roman two-faced deity of thresholds, beginnings, and endings, who opens the way and looks both forward and back. Janus is the uniquely Roman god of doorways, beginnings, and endings, two-faced, looking into past and future, invoked first in every rite. The Roman Janus is the god of the doorway — uniquely Roman with no Greek equivalent, the deity of doorways, beginnings, and endings with two faces gazing into past and future; his name from ianua ('door'), the god of every doorway, gate, and passage, the divine keeper of thresholds presiding over all transitions, depicted with two faces back to back, one looking forward and one back — invoked first in nearly every Roman rite (as god of beginnings opening the way for all that followed), the month of January named for him as the doorway of the year, and the gates of his temple open in war and closed in peace, their state marking the condition of Rome.

Janus across cultures

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