JANIFORMS

MANY FACES / MANY PLACES

For thousands of years,throughout history, people on all continents in all cultures have created images with two faces. The idea seems to be an active part of our human nature. The Romans may not have been the first to honor this idea. They are, however, credited with giving the form its name, Janus.

Illustration of traditional Roman Janus

The Romans took everything from the people they conquered. They absorbed a wide variety of dieties, traditions and mythlology. The Romans did not have a formal, dogmatic religion. They were polyteistic. There were more than thirty annual festivals and celebrations dedicated to common, daily life activities. Most were reinvented from identical Greek Gods and Godesses. Janus, however, had no counterpart in Greek mythology.

Illustration Janus protecting gate to the Temple

According to legend, Janus was a guard at the doorway of a temple in Athens,Greece. The city was under seige. Janus was charged with the insurmountable task of not permiting the enemey in or the occupants of the temple out. His triumph was made possible by his ability to watch both directions at the same time. It was as if Janus had two faces. Janus is remembered as the protector of thresholds and guardian of beginings.

Illustration of " Janus " coin; circa 50 B.C. [ P.S. The gates are open. ]

The gates to the Temple honoring Janus on the Roman Forum, Ianus geminus, were left open during war and closed during peace. The Roman festival of Agonalia was celebrated there on 09 January and 11 December, annually. These ceremonies represented the begining and end of their calander year. The first month of the Roman calander was "Ianuarius. " [ January ] They concluded that everything begins by passing through a doorway or gate between the past and the present. Janus was the protector of life events; birth; cultural cycles; and matrimony. He also symbolized dualities. The representation of opposites; male / female; up / down; summer / winter; left / right.

ANXIETY

ANXIETY; rear

In Tlatilco, central Mexico or " Meso-America," many ceramic figurines have been found depicting a female human form with two faces on one head. thought to have been made between 1300 and 700 B.C., these " pretty Ladies " seem to have been associated with firtility and Mother Earth. This particular one was a pharmicutical promotion for " Phyco-tropic " drugs to calm anxiety. It was found with another[ see below ] at a flea market just a five minute walk from here.

Broken " Anxiety " showing the carbon in the center.

These figurines are actually fuel fired ceramics, no doubt from some where in modern Mexico. OOPZ !! One broke while being photographed. Low and behold, it was " reduced " in the center. That means it was starved of oxygen during the firing . It turned to carbon in the center. [WOW !! That is so cool to theis reporter.]

" Distress "

Rear view

Here, is yet another, remnant of the endless promotions citizens of consumer societies must endure for our culture to survive. Its form is from the same era as the previous example. This one, however, has two heads on one body. It is a Janiform. One might say a " classical " specimen.

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