140 



the chaos of unintelligible and conflicting facts assumes shape and order. 

 We now see why days, months, and the year itself, are under the protec- 

 tion of this god. The sun causes the day to break and the year to 

 revolve ; the sun rises in the east and sets in the west ; the double face 

 of Janus will be no longer enigmatical, especially if we bear in mind that, 

 in his celebrated statue, the Janus Bifrons, in the Argiletum, near the 

 forum, it was towards east and west that his faces were turned.* We see 

 the reason why he bears the key of heaven ; why he " turns the Pivots 

 of the Pole ; " why the heaven, the sea, the clouds, the earth, are closed 

 and opened by his hand ; for is it not the sun that brings the universe 

 under our view and withdraws it by giving way to night ? It is the sun 

 that opens and closes day, month, and year. Janus is also mentioned 

 as the inventor of wreaths, (Athen xv, 692). Why ? The word annus 

 (and annulus) explains it. The high rank of Janus among the gods is 

 also explained. The sun holds a most prominent position in all systems 

 of natural polytheism. As the giver of light and warmth, as the source 

 of fertility and plenty, as the lord of the year and seasons, as the most 

 splendid of heavenly bodies, the sun could not fail to call forth feelings 

 of awe and veneration from the children of nature. Janus was therefore, 

 as god of the sun, perhaps the principal god of one of the races who, by 

 coalescing, formed the Roman people. His name proves, on a close 

 examination, to be identical with Zeus and Jupiter, different though the 

 sounds may be at first sight, f He seems, therefore, to have been first 

 supplanted by the Etruscan Jupiter ; but as the latter was represented 

 more as the god of day and heaven than as the sun-god, Janus would 

 most likely have retained that rank if he had not been supei-seded by 

 Apollo, a deity imported into Rome from Greece. Now, if it had so 

 happened that the name of Apollo had not been brought over, but that 

 all his attributes had been conferred on Janus, it is possible that the 



* Procopius. Bell. Goth. I. 25. 



•f The primitive syllable of this word is DI, of the radical signification to thine. This ro<>t 

 is compounded with all the other vowels of the alphabet, and thus produces the fullowing 

 forms : — 



1. DI, followed bv the letter A, produces Dianus, Diana, Janus, Jana, Zdv, Zdvu; the 

 identity of <fi and j and ^ is proved by comparing did and $a, jugum and ^uyov. 



2. DI followed by the letter E produces: Dies (in Diespiter), Deus, ^erfc. Zijv, A«i>c, 

 faoUeJ. 



3. DI with O produces Jovis, Vediovis. 



4. DI with U produces Jupiter. Juno, divns, diamas. 



6. DI, without additional vowels, makes Dis, Ai(roc), Tina. 



A great number of other words might be drawn into this comparison, botraongh has bron 

 enumerated to show the identity of the names of the great deities, and the connexion between 

 them and the words for Light aad Day. 



