The Ancient Roman deity Janus appears as a two-headed God. With one face looking backwards in time and the other forward, he was appropriately worshipped at the start of the New Year. Janus was invoked for good luck in all new undertakings, and today many of us continue a long tradition when we set out our personal resolutions for the year to come. The Roman poet Ovid writes in his work on the ancient calendar, _Fasti_, that on New Year’s day, “a happy day now dawns: forward the holy aspirations both with tounges and spirits.” In other words, you both have to say out loud what your intentions are, and then also mentally decide to follow through with them. Even though he was part of a pagan tradition, throughout the Christian Middle Ages Janus consistently was represented in art as a zodiac symbol for the month of January. The image above comes from the Cathedral at Chartres (ca. 1145). Obviously, we still take our nomenclature for the first month of the year from the name of this Ancient Roman God.
Source(s): Fasti, I. 83.5 f2f, from “Internet Archive, ‘A translation of Ovid’s Fast I into English Prose,'” by William Thynne (@archive.org); “The Janus Episode in Ovid’s Fasti,” Philip Hardie, _Materiali e discussioni per l’analisi dei testi classici, No. 26 (1991), p.o.. 47-64; “Looking forward and backward with Janus,” Jan 10, 2018, Pamela Patton, _The Index of Medieval Art_, @ima.princeton.edu; the Wikipedia entry for Janus is amazing!
