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| Whether It is Reasonable to Separate Janus and Terminus as Two Distinct Deities. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter 7.—Whether It is
Reasonable to Separate Janus and Terminus as Two Distinct
Deities.
Who, then, is Janus, with whom
Varro commences? He is the world. Certainly a very brief and
unambiguous reply. Why, then, do they say that the beginnings of
things pertain to him, but the ends to another whom they call
Terminus? For they say that two months have been dedicated to
these two gods, with reference to beginnings and ends—January to
Janus, and February to Terminus—over and above those ten months
which
commence with March and end with December. And they
say that that is the reason why the Terminalia are celebrated in
the month of February, the same month in which the sacred
purification is made which they call Februum, and from which the
month derives its name.265
265 An interesting account of the
changes made in the Roman year by Numa is given in Plutarch’s
life of that king. Ovid also (Fasti, ii.) explains the
derivation of February, telling us that it was the last month of
the old year, and took its name from the lustrations performed
then: Februa Romani dixere piamina patres. | Do the beginnings of things,
therefore, pertain to the world, which is Janus, and not also the
ends, since another god has been placed over them? Do they not
own that all things which they say begin in this world also come to
an end in this world? What folly it is, to give him only half
power in work, when in his image they give him two faces! Would
it not be a far more elegant way of interpreting the two-faced
image, to say that Janus and Terminus are the same, and that the
one face has reference to beginnings, the other to ends? For one
who works ought to have respect to both. For he who in every
forthputting of activity does not look back on the beginning, does
not look forward to the end. Wherefore it is necessary that
prospective intention be connected with retrospective memory. For
how shall one find how to finish anything, if he has forgotten what
it was which he had begun? But if they thought that the blessed
life is begun in this world, and perfected beyond the world, and
for that reason attributed to Janus, that is, to the world, only
the power of beginnings, they should certainly have preferred
Terminus to him, and should not have shut him out from the number
of the select gods. Yet even now, when the beginnings and ends of
temporal things are represented by these two gods, more honor ought
to have been given to Terminus. For the greater joy is that which
is felt when anything is finished; but things begun are always
cause of much anxiety until they are brought to an end, which end
he who begins anything very greatly longs for, fixes his mind on,
expects, desires; nor does any one ever rejoice over anything he
has begun, unless it be brought to an end.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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