title: People Power Revolution

text: On February 15, Marcos was proclaimed by COMELEC and Batasang Pambansa as the winner amid the controversy. All 50 opposition members of the Parliament walked out in protest. The Filipino people repudiated the results, asserting that Aquino was the real victor. Both "winners" took their oath of office in two different places, with Aquino gaining greater mass support. Aquino also called for coordinated strikes and mass boycott of the media and businesses owned by Marcos's cronies. As a result, the crony banks, corporations, and media were hit hard, and their shares in the stock market plummeted to record levels.


title: People Power Revolution

text: On February 13, Cebu Archbishop Cardinal Ricardo Vidal issued a declaration on behalf of the Philippine Church hierarchy stating that when "a government does not of itself freely correct the evil it has inflicted on the people then it is our serious moral obligation as a people to make it do so." The declaration also asked "every loyal member of the Church, every community of the faithful, to form their judgment about the February 7 polls" and told all the Filipinos, "Now is the time to speak up. Now is the time to repair the wrong. The wrong was systematically organized. So must its correction be. But as in the election itself, that depends fully on the people; on what they are willing and ready to do."


title: People Power Revolution

text: On February 16, 1986, Corazon Aquino held the "Tagumpay ng Bayan" (People's Victory) rally at Luneta Park, announcing a civil disobedience campaign and calling for her supporters to boycott publications and companies which were associated with Marcos or any of his cronies. The event was attended by a crowd of about two million people. Aquino's camp began making preparations for more rallies, and Aquino herself went to Cebu to rally more people to their cause.


title: People Power Revolution

text: In the aftermath of the election and the revelations of irregularities, the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM) - a cabal of officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) disgruntled by the patronage politics and corruption in the AFP, formed in 1982 - set into motion a coup attempt against the Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos.


title: People Power Revolution

text: RAM's initial plan was for a team to assault Malacañang Palace and arrest Ferdinand Marcos. RAM founder Col. Gringo Honasan formulated a plan to attack the palace and "neutralize" the Marcos couple. Other military units would take over key strategic facilities, such as the airport, military bases, the GHQAFP in Camp Aguinaldo, and major highway junctions to restrict counteroffensive by Marcos-loyal troops.


title: People Power Revolution

text: However, after Marcos learned about the plot, he ordered their leaders' arrest, and presented to the international and local press some of the captured plotters, Maj. Saulito Aromin and Maj. Edgardo Doromal.


title: People Power Revolution

text: Threatened with their impending imprisonment, Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and his fellow coup plotters decided to ask for help from then-AFP Vice Chief of Staff Lt. Gen Fidel Ramos, who was also the chief of the Philippine Constabulary (now the Philippine National Police). Ramos agreed to resign from his position and support the plotters. Ramos also contacted the highly influential Cardinal Archbishop of Manila Jaime Sin for his support.


title: People Power Revolution

text: Despite Ramos' defection, however, the coup plotters were essentially trapped in Camp Crame, and in the words of historian Vicente L. Rafael, "became sitting ducks for Ferdinand Marcos’ loyalist forces."


title: People Power Revolution

text: At about 6:30 p.m. on February 22, Enrile and Ramos held a press conference at the Ministry of National Defense building in Camp Aguinaldo, the AFP headquarters, where they announced that they had resigned from their positions in Marcos' cabinet and were withdrawing support from his government. Marcos himself later conducted a news conference calling on Enrile and Ramos to surrender, urging them to "stop this stupidity". Marcos tried to call Enrile, but Enrile refused to play Marcos's game. Eventually out of desperation Marcos televised his sickly appearance, and announced that he promises to crush every Filipino who stands in his way in order to capture Enrile and Ramos.


title: People Power Revolution

text: After Cardinal Vidal's February 13 condemnation of the snap election's fraudulent result, Cardinal Sin went on Radio Veritas at around 9 p.m. on February 22 and exhorted Filipinos in the capital to aid rebel leaders by going to the section of EDSA between Camp Crame and Aguinaldo and giving emotional support, food and other supplies. For many, this seemed an unwise decision since civilians would not stand a chance against a dispersal by government troops. Many people, especially priests and nuns, still trooped to EDSA.


title: People Power Revolution

text: Radio Veritas played a critical role during the mass uprising. Former University of the Philippines president Francisco Nemenzo stated that: ""Without Radio Veritas, it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to mobilize millions of people in a matter of hours."" Similarly, a certain account in the event said that: ""Radio Veritas, in fact, was our umbilical cord to whatever else was going on"."


title: People Power Revolution

text: At dawn, Sunday, government troops arrived to knock down the main 50-kilowatt transmitter of Radio Veritas, cutting off broadcasts to people in the nearby provinces. The station switched to a 10-kilowatt standby transmitter with a limited range of broadcast. The station was targeted because it had proven to be a valuable communications tool for the people supporting the rebels, keeping them informed of government troop movements and relaying requests for food, medicine, and supplies.


title: People Power Revolution

text: Still, people came to EDSA until it swelled to hundreds of thousands of unarmed civilians. The mood in the street was very festive, with many bringing whole families. Performers entertained the crowds, nuns and priests led prayer vigils, and people set up barricades and makeshift sandbags, trees, and vehicles in several places along EDSA and intersecting streets such as Santolan and Ortigas Avenue. Everywhere, people listened to Radio Veritas on their radios. A photo taken by Pete Reyes of Srs. Porferia Ocariza and Teresita Burias leading the rosary in front of soldiers has since become an iconic picture of the revolution. Several groups sang "Bayan Ko" (My Homeland), which, since 1980, had become a patriotic anthem of the opposition. People frequently flashed the 'LABAN' sign, which is an "L" formed with their thumb and index finger. 'laban' is the Filipino word for 'fight', but also the abbreviation of Lakas ng Bayan, Ninoy Aquino's party. After lunch on February 23, Enrile and Ramos decided to consolidate their positions. Enrile crossed EDSA from Camp Aguinaldo to Camp Crame amidst cheers from the crowd.


title: People Power Revolution

text: In the mid-afternoon, Radio Veritas relayed reports of Marines massing near the camps in the east and LVT-5 tanks approaching from the north and south. A contingent of Marines with tanks and armored vans, led by Brigadier General Artemio Tadiar, was stopped along Ortigas Avenue, about two kilometers from the camps, by tens of thousands of people. Nuns holding rosaries knelt in front of the tanks and men and women linked arms together to block the troops. Tadiar asked the crowds to make a clearing for them, but they did not budge. In the end, the troops retreated with no shots fired.


title: People Power Revolution

text: By evening, the standby transmitter of Radio Veritas failed, although the stations of the Far East Broadcasting Company also took up the task of broadcasting information to the crowds, calling them in particular to protect Gate 2 of Camp Aguinaldo. Shortly after midnight, the Radio Veritas staff led by Father James Reuter were able to move to the transmitter of DZRJ-AM so they could begin broadcasting again. To help keep their location a secret, they took up the moniker "Radyo Bandido" (Outlaw Radio ) as a callsign. June Keithley, with her husband Angelo Castro, Jr., was the radio broadcaster who continued Radio Veritas' program throughout the night and in the ensuing days.


title: People Power Revolution

text: In the early morning hours of February 24, helicopters manned by the 15th Strike Wing of the Philippine Air Force, led by Colonel Antonio Sotelo, were ordered from Sangley Point in Cavite, south of Manila, to head to Camp Crame. Secretly, the squadron had already defected and instead of attacking Camp Crame, landed in it with the crowds cheering and hugging the pilots and crew members in response to what has been referred to as the "Sotelo landing," considered a key turning point where the military circumstances turned against Marcos.


title: People Power Revolution

text: A Bell 214 helicopter piloted by Major Deo Cruz of the 205th Helicopter Wing and Sikorsky S-76 gunships piloted by Colonel Charles Hotchkiss of the 20th Air Commando Squadron joined the rebel squadron earlier in the air. The presence of the helicopters boosted the morale of Enrile and Ramos who had been continually encouraging their fellow soldiers to join the opposition movement. In the afternoon, Aquino arrived at the base where Enrile, Ramos, Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM) officers, and a throng were waiting.


title: People Power Revolution

text: At around that 6:30, June Keithley received reports that Marcos had left Malacañang Palace and broadcast this to the people at EDSA. The crowd celebrated and even Ramos and Enrile came out from Crame to appear to the crowds. This would be disproven when Marcos went on MBS 4 a few hours later, so it was later speculated that the false report was a calculated move against Marcos to encourage more defections.


title: People Power Revolution

text: At dawn on Monday, February 24, Marines marching from Libis towards the east of Camp Aguinaldo lobbed tear gas at the demonstrators, who quickly dispersed. By 8:30 a.m., some 3,000 Marines entered and held the east side of Camp Aguinaldo, and the Fourth Marine brigade under the command of Colonel Braulio Balbas positioned howitzers and mortars to strike against Camp Crame.


title: People Power Revolution

text: Despite the fact that civilians would be killed in such an attack, General Josephus Ramas gave the "kill order" against Camp Crame at around 9 AM. Although the artillery was ready to fire, Balbas stalled, telling Ramas that they were "still looking for maps." Ramas then told Balbas that "The President is on the other line waiting for compliance!" Ramas repeated his orders to Balbas at 9:20, to which Balbas replied they were “still positioning the cannons.” Balbas would eventually refuse to follow Ramas' orders each of the four times he was ordered to fire on Camp Crame, leading historians to point to this moment as the point at which Marcos lost control of the Philippine Marine Corps.


title: People Power Revolution

text: The jubilation resulting from the rumor that Marcos had fled was short-lived, as Marcos appeared on television on the government-controlled MBS-4 at around 9:00, (using the foreclosed ABS-CBN facilities, transmitter and compound in Broadcast Plaza, now ABS-CBN Broadcasting Center) declaring that he would not step down.


title: People Power Revolution

text: During the broadcast, Marcos announced that he had lifted the policy of “Maximum Tolerance” which that government had previously put in place. This gave armed forces permission to use force to defend government installations, as well as communications facilities, from Enrile and Ramos' forces. In addition, he told radio and TV stations not to broadcast news about military movements without permission - which was exactly what Radyo Bandido had been doing.


title: People Power Revolution

text: At one point during the broadcast, General Ver approached Marcos and informed him that the AFP was ready to mount an airstrike on Camp Crame, but Marcos ordered them to halt. The actual dialogue on TV between Marcos and then AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Ver went as follows:


title: People Power Revolution

text: At about 9:50 a.m. MBS-4 suddenly went off the air during Marcos' broadcast. A contingent of rebels, under Colonel Mariano Santiago, had captured the station. MBS-4 was put back on the air shortly after noon, with Orly Punzalan announcing on live television, "Channel 4 is on the air again to serve the people." By this time, the crowds at EDSA had grown to over a million, but some estimates place the crowd number up to 2 million people.


title: People Power Revolution

text: On September 14, 1986, this broadcast was considered the "return" of ABS-CBN on air because this was the time when former employees of the network were inside the complex on after 14 years of closure since Marcos took it over during the Martial Law of 1972. "Radyo Bandido" ended broadcasting that afternoon, while Radio Veritas resumed transmissions, this time from the Broadcast Plaza's radio studios.


title: People Power Revolution

text: In the late afternoon of February 24, helicopters of the 15th Strike Wing, commanded by Sotelo, attacked Villamor Airbase, destroying presidential air assets. Sotelo had radioed ahead to the pilots and crews of the air assets, telling them to stay away from the aircraft. As a result, the assets were disabled without any human casualties. Sotelo had sent another helicopter to Malacañang, where it fired a rocket on the palace grounds and caused minor damage.


title: People Power Revolution

text: Later, most of the officers who had graduated from the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) defected. The majority of the Armed Forces had already changed sides.


title: People Power Revolution

text: On the morning of Tuesday, February 25, at around 7 a.m., a minor clash occurred between loyal government troops and the reformists. Snipers stationed atop the crony-owned RPN-9 transmitter in Panay Avenue, near MBS-4, began shooting at the reformists. Many rebel soldiers surged to the station, and a rebel S-76 helicopter later shot the snipers at the broadcast tower. The troops later left after a V-150 was blocked by the crowd assembled.


title: People Power Revolution

text: Later in the morning, Corazon Aquino was inaugurated as President of the Philippines in a simple ceremony at Club Filipino in Greenhills, about a kilometer from Camp Crame. She was sworn in as president by Senior Associate Justice Claudio Teehankee, and Laurel as vice-president by Justice Vicente Abad Santos. The Bible on which Aquino swore her oath was held by her mother-in-law Aurora Aquino, the mother of Ninoy Aquino. Attending the ceremonies were Ramos, who was then promoted to General, Enrile, and many politicians.


title: People Power Revolution

text: Outside Club Filipino, all the way to EDSA, hundreds of people cheered and celebrated. "Bayan Ko" ("My Country", a popular folk song and the unofficial National Anthem of protest) was sung after Aquino's oath-taking. Many people wore yellow, the color of Aquino's presidential campaign.


title: People Power Revolution

text: An hour later, Marcos held the inauguration at Malacañang Palace. Loyalist civilians attended the ceremony, shouting ""Marcos, Marcos, Marcos pa rin!" (Marcos, Marcos, still Marcos!)". On the Palace balcony, Marcos took the Oath of Office, aired on IBC-13 and RPN-9 (RPN-9 was going off-the-air during the broadcast of the inauguration, as its transmitter was captured by reformist soldiers) None of the invited foreign dignitaries attended the ceremony, for security reasons. The couple finally emerged on the balcony of the Palace before 3,000 KBL loyalists who were shouting, "Capture the snakes!" Rather tearfully, First Lady Imelda Marcos gave a farewell rendition of the couple's theme song – the 1938 "kundiman" ""Dahil Sa Iyo"" (Because of You) – chanting the song's entreaties in Tagalog:


title: People Power Revolution

text: Because of you, I became happyLoving I shall offer youIf it is true I shall be enslaved by youAll of this because of you.


title: People Power Revolution

text: The broadcast of the event was interrupted as rebel troops successfully captured the other stations. It was the last time Marcos was seen in the Philippines.


title: People Power Revolution

text: By this time, hundreds of people had amassed at the barricades along Mendiola, only a hundred meters away from Malacañang. They were prevented from storming the Palace by loyal government troops securing the area. The angry demonstrators were pacified by priests who warned them not to be violent.


title: People Power Revolution

text: Despite holding an inauguration, Marcos and his family were already preparing to flee the country. At 5:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning, Marcos phoned United States Senator Paul Laxalt, asking for advice from the White House. Laxalt advised him to "cut and cut clean", to which Marcos expressed his disappointment after a short pause. In the afternoon, Marcos talked to Minister Enrile, asking for safe passage for him, his family, and close allies such as General Ver. He also asked Enrile if United States Ambassador Stephen Bosworth could assign a security escort for the Marcos family's departure.


title: People Power Revolution

text: Around midnight, the Marcos family boarded a United States Air Force HH-3E Rescue helicopter and flew to Clark Air Base in Angeles City 83 kilometers north of Manila. At Clark Air Base, Marcos asked to spend a couple of days with his family in Ilocos Norte, his native province. Aquino vetoed the request. President Reagan privately derided Aquino for denying Marcos a last look at his home province.


title: People Power Revolution

text: The deposed First Family and their servants then rode US Air Force DC-9 Medivac and C-141B planes to Andersen Air Force Base in the north of the United States territory of Guam, then flying to Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii where Marcos finally arrived on February 26. The United States Government documented that they entered the United States with millions of dollars in jewelry, gold, stocks, and cash.


title: People Power Revolution

text: When news of the Marcos family's departure reached civilians, many rejoiced and danced in the streets. Over at Mendiola, the demonstrators stormed the Palace, which was closed to ordinary people for around a decade. Despite looting by some angry protesters, the majority wandered about inside through rooms where national history was shaped, looking at objects extravagant and mundane that the Marcos clan and its court had abandoned in their flight. Shortly after midnight on February 26, five army trucks of troops under the command of Fidel Ramos arrived in Malacañang Palace to secure it after Ferdinand Marcos had left - marking the end of the Marcos dictatorship, and placing the palace under the control of the Provisional Government of the Philippines until a new constitution could be enacted a year later, in 1987.


title: People Power Revolution

text: In other countries, people also rejoiced and congratulated Filipinos they knew. CBS anchorman Bob Simon reported: "We Americans like to think we taught the Filipinos democracy. Well, tonight they are teaching the world."


title: People Power Revolution

text: While much of the historical focus regarding the People Power Revolution has been on events arount the two camps and the presidential palace, Filipinos from all over the archipelago also participated in the revolution, with large protests happening in Baguio City, Cebu City, Cagayan de Oro City, and Davao City, as well as prominent municipalities such as Los Baños, Laguna. Cebu played a particularly important part because Corazon Aquino was there at the time the EDSA protests began, speaking at a rally at Fuente Osmeña Circle which was a protest against cheating during the Presidential elections earlier that month.


title: People Power Revolution

text: Immediately after her accession, Aquino issued Proclamation No. 3, a provisional constitution which established a revolutionary government. The edict promulgated the 1986 Freedom Constitution, which retained or superseded various provisions of the 1973 Constitution that were in force up to that point. This allowed Aquino to wield both executive and legislative powers; among her first acts was to unilaterally abolish the Batasang Pambansa (the unicameral legislature duly elected in 1984), pending a plebiscite for a more permanent Constitution and the establishment of a new Congress by 1987.


title: People Power Revolution

text: Despite the success of the People Power Revolution, there were elements which were dissatisfied by Aquino's rise to power, including the leaders Reform the Armed Forces Movement which had launched the failed coup against Marcos and had been saved by the arrival of the Civilians at EDSA. As a result, these groups launched a number of coup d'état attempts throughout Aquino's term.


title: People Power Revolution

text: The revolution had an effect on democratization movements in such countries as Taiwan and South Korea; other effects include the restoration of the freedom of the press, abolition of repressive laws enforced by the previous regime, the adoption of the 1987 Constitution, and the subordination of the military to civilian rule, despite several coup attempts during Aquino's rule.


title: People Power Revolution

text: The revolution provided for the restoration of democratic institutions after 13 years of totalitarian rule and these institutions has been used by various groups to challenge the entrenched political families and to strengthen Philippine democracy.


title: People Power Revolution

text: The People Power Revolution has inspired a call for a change of government through peaceful protests rather than bloodshed. Many similar revolutions have followed since then, taking the Philippine example of nonviolent regime change, such as that in East Germany and many other former Soviet Bloc countries, most of which had direct relation to the end of the Cold War in 1989.


title: People Power Revolution

text: Rampant corruption during the term of President Joseph Estrada led to the similar 2001 EDSA Revolution leading to his resignation from the presidency.


title: People Power Revolution

text: In spite of the revolution's repudiation of Marcos' dictatorial regime, the Marcos family slowly regained a political presence in the Philippines mostly through what researchers attribute to a systematic spread of lies and disinformation, with Imelda and her children Bongbong and Imee reacquiring positions in government by the 1990s. Bongbong himself was defeated as runner-up to Leni Robredo as a candidate for the Philippine vice presidency during the 2016 presidential elections. He protested in the Supreme Court and was denied multiple times, with the official gap getting even significantly larger from the original results. In 2021, Bongbong announced his bid for the Philippine presidency in the 2022 Philippine presidential election. He was elected president, marking the Marcos family's return to Malacañang after 36 years.


title: People Power Revolution

text: The EDSA Revolution Anniversary is a special public holiday in the Philippines. Since 2002, the holiday has been declared a special non-working holiday.


title: People Power Revolution

text: Three commemorative sites along EDSA memorialize the People Power Revolution, put up by different organizations to commemorate different aspects of the People Power Revolution.


title: People Power Revolution

text: In 1986 a few months after February a music video starring various artists was released called, ""Handog ng Pilipino Sa Mundo"". It was written by Apo Hiking Society singer Jim Paredes and performed by numerous artists, and showed martial law heroes Jose W. Diokno, Lorenzo M. Tañada, Rene Saguisag, Butz Aquino, Joe Burgos, and Pres. Aquino with Vice-President Doy Laurel during their campaign.


title: People Power Revolution

text: In 2003, the "Radio Broadcast of the Philippine People Power Revolution" was inscribed in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Memory of the World Register, which is the official documentary heritage list of the United Nations (UN)'s educational and scientific body.


title: Diode

text: A diode is a two-terminal electronic component that conducts current primarily in one direction (asymmetric conductance); it has low (ideally zero) resistance in one direction, and high (ideally infinite) resistance in the other.


title: Diode

text: A diode vacuum tube or thermionic diode is a vacuum tube with two electrodes, a heated cathode and a plate, in which electrons can flow in only one direction, from cathode to plate.


title: Diode

text: A semiconductor diode, the most commonly used type today, is a crystalline piece of semiconductor material with a p–n junction connected to two electrical terminals. Semiconductor diodes were the first semiconductor electronic devices. The discovery of asymmetric electrical conduction across the contact between a crystalline mineral and a metal was made by German physicist Ferdinand Braun in 1874. Today, most diodes are made of silicon, but other semiconducting materials such as gallium arsenide and germanium are also used.


title: Diode

text: Among many uses, diodes are found in rectifiers to convert AC power to DC, demodulation in radio receivers, and can even be used as temperature sensors. A common variant of a diode is a light emitting diode, which is used as electric lighting and status indicators on electronic devices. Diodes may be combined with other components to form logic gates.


title: Diode

text: The most common function of a diode is to allow an electric current to pass in one direction (called the diode's "forward" direction), while blocking it in the opposite direction (the "reverse" direction). As such, the diode can be viewed as an electronic version of a check valve. This unidirectional behavior is called rectification and is used to convert alternating current (ac) to direct current (dc). As rectifiers, diodes can be used for such tasks as extracting modulation from radio signals in radio receivers.


title: Diode

text: However, diodes can have more complicated behavior than this simple on–off action, because of their nonlinear current-voltage characteristics. For instance, a diode's forward-direction voltage drop varies only a little with the current, and is more so a function of temperature; this effect can be used as a temperature sensor or as a voltage reference. And its high resistance to current flowing in the reverse direction suddenly drops to a low resistance when the reverse voltage across the diode reaches a value called the breakdown voltage. Semiconductor diodes in the forward direction also need to surpass a threshold voltage, or cut-in voltage, before being able to conduct electricity.


title: Diode

text: A semiconductor diode's current–voltage characteristic can be tailored by selecting the semiconductor materials and the doping impurities introduced into the materials during manufacture. These techniques are used to create special-purpose diodes that perform many different functions. For example, diodes are used to regulate voltage (Zener diodes), to protect circuits from high voltage surges (avalanche diodes), to electronically tune radio and TV receivers (varactor diodes), to generate radio-frequency oscillations (tunnel diodes, Gunn diodes, IMPATT diodes), and to produce light (light-emitting diodes). Tunnel, Gunn and IMPATT diodes exhibit negative resistance, which is useful in microwave and switching circuits.


title: Diode

text: Thermionic (vacuum-tube) diodes and solid-state (semiconductor) diodes were developed separately, at approximately the same time, in the early 1900s, as radio receiver detectors. Until the 1950s, vacuum diodes were used more frequently in radios because the early point-contact semiconductor diodes were less stable. In addition, most receiving sets had vacuum tubes for amplification that could easily have the thermionic diodes included in the tube (for example the 12SQ7 double diode triode), and vacuum-tube rectifiers and gas-filled rectifiers were capable of handling some high-voltage/high-current rectification tasks better than the semiconductor diodes (such as selenium rectifiers) that were available at that time.


title: Diode

text: In 1873, Frederick Guthrie observed that a grounded, white-hot metal ball brought in close proximity to an electroscope would discharge a positively charged electroscope, but not a negatively charged electroscope. In 1880, Thomas Edison observed unidirectional current between heated and unheated elements in a bulb, later called Edison effect, and was granted a patent on application of the phenomenon for use in a DC voltmeter. About 20 years later, John Ambrose Fleming (scientific adviser to the Marconi Company and former Edison employee) realized that the Edison effect could be used as a radio detector. Fleming patented the first true thermionic diode, the Fleming valve, in Britain on 16 November 1904 (followed by in November 1905). Throughout the vacuum tube era, valve diodes were used in almost all electronics such as radios, televisions, sound systems, and instrumentation. They slowly lost market share beginning in the late 1940s due to selenium rectifier technology and then to semiconductor diodes during the 1960s. Today they are still used in a few high power applications where their ability to withstand transient voltages and their robustness gives them an advantage over semiconductor devices, and in musical instrument and audiophile applications.


title: Diode

text: In 1874, German scientist Karl Ferdinand Braun discovered the "unilateral conduction" across a contact between a metal and a mineral. Indian scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose was the first to use a crystal for detecting radio waves in 1894. The crystal detector was developed into a practical device for wireless telegraphy by Greenleaf Whittier Pickard, who invented a silicon crystal detector in 1903 and received a patent for it on 20 November 1906. Other experimenters tried a variety of other minerals as detectors. Semiconductor principles were unknown to the developers of these early rectifiers. During the 1930s understanding of physics advanced and in the mid 1930s researchers at Bell Telephone Laboratories recognized the potential of the crystal detector for application in microwave technology. Researchers at Bell Labs, Western Electric, MIT, Purdue and in the UK intensively developed point-contact diodes ("crystal rectifiers" or "crystal diodes") during World War II for application in radar. After World War II, AT&T used these in their microwave towers that criss-crossed the United States, and many radar sets use them even in the 21st century. In 1946, Sylvania began offering the 1N34 crystal diode. During the early 1950s, junction diodes were developed.


title: Diode

text: At the time of their invention, asymmetrical conduction devices were known as rectifiers. In 1919, the year tetrodes were invented, William Henry Eccles coined the term "diode" from the Greek roots "di" (from "δί"), meaning 'two', and "ode" (from "οδός"), meaning 'path'. The word "diode", however, as well as "triode, tetrode, pentode, hexode", were already in use as terms of multiplex telegraphy.


title: Diode

text: Although all diodes "rectify", the term "rectifier" is usually applied to diodes intended for power supply application in order to differentiate them from diodes intended for small signal circuits.


title: Diode

text: A thermionic diode is a thermionic-valve device consisting of a sealed, evacuated glass or metal envelope containing two electrodes: a cathode and a plate. The cathode is either "indirectly heated" or "directly heated". If indirect heating is employed, a heater is included in the envelope.


title: Diode

text: In operation, the cathode is heated to red heat, around . A directly heated cathode is made of tungsten wire and is heated by a current passed through it from an external voltage source. An indirectly heated cathode is heated by infrared radiation from a nearby heater that is formed of Nichrome wire and supplied with current provided by an external voltage source.


title: Diode

text: The operating temperature of the cathode causes it to release electrons into the vacuum, a process called thermionic emission. The cathode is coated with oxides of alkaline earth metals, such as barium and strontium oxides. These have a low work function, meaning that they more readily emit electrons than would the uncoated cathode.


title: Diode

text: The alternating voltage to be rectified is applied between the cathode and the plate. When the plate voltage is positive with respect to the cathode, the plate electrostatically attracts the electrons from the cathode, so a current of electrons flows through the tube from cathode to plate. When the plate voltage is negative with respect to the cathode, no electrons are emitted by the plate, so no current can pass from the plate to the cathode.


title: Diode

text: Point-contact diodes were developed starting in the 1930s, out of the early crystal detector technology, and are now generally used in the 3 to 30 gigahertz range. Point-contact diodes use a small diameter metal wire in contact with a semiconductor crystal, and are of either "non-welded" contact type or "welded contact" type. Non-welded contact construction utilizes the Schottky barrier principle. The metal side is the pointed end of a small diameter wire that is in contact with the semiconductor crystal. In the welded contact type, a small P region is formed in the otherwise N-type crystal around the metal point during manufacture by momentarily passing a relatively large current through the device. Point contact diodes generally exhibit lower capacitance, higher forward resistance and greater reverse leakage than junction diodes.


title: Diode

text: A p–n junction diode is made of a crystal of semiconductor, usually silicon, but germanium and gallium arsenide are also used. Impurities are added to it to create a region on one side that contains negative charge carriers (electrons), called an n-type semiconductor, and a region on the other side that contains positive charge carriers (holes), called a p-type semiconductor. When the n-type and p-type materials are attached together, a momentary flow of electrons occurs from the n to the p side resulting in a third region between the two where no charge carriers are present. This region is called the depletion region because there are no charge carriers (neither electrons nor holes) in it. The diode's terminals are attached to the n-type and p-type regions. The boundary between these two regions called a p–n junction, is where the action of the diode takes place. When a sufficiently higher electrical potential is applied to the P side (the anode) than to the N side (the cathode), it allows electrons to flow through the depletion region from the N-type side to the P-type side. The junction does not allow the flow of electrons in the opposite direction when the potential is applied in reverse, creating, in a sense, an electrical check valve.


title: Diode

text: Another type of junction diode, the Schottky diode, is formed from a metal–semiconductor junction rather than a p–n junction, which reduces capacitance and increases switching speed.


title: Diode

text: A semiconductor diode's behavior in a circuit is given by its current–voltage characteristic, or I–V graph (see graph below). The shape of the curve is determined by the transport of charge carriers through the so-called "depletion layer" or "depletion region" that exists at the p–n junction between differing semiconductors. When a p–n junction is first created, conduction-band (mobile) electrons from the N-doped region diffuse into the P-doped region where there is a large population of holes (vacant places for electrons) with which the electrons "recombine". When a mobile electron recombines with a hole, both hole and electron vanish, leaving behind an immobile positively charged donor (dopant) on the N side and negatively charged acceptor (dopant) on the P side. The region around the p–n junction becomes depleted of charge carriers and thus behaves as an insulator.


title: Diode

text: However, the width of the depletion region (called the depletion width) cannot grow without limit. For each electron–hole pair recombination made, a positively charged dopant ion is left behind in the N-doped region, and a negatively charged dopant ion is created in the P-doped region. As recombination proceeds and more ions are created, an increasing electric field develops through the depletion zone that acts to slow and then finally stop recombination. At this point, there is a "built-in" potential across the depletion zone.


title: Diode

text: If an external voltage is placed across the diode with the same polarity as the built-in potential, the depletion zone continues to act as an insulator, preventing any significant electric current flow (unless electron–hole pairs are actively being created in the junction by, for instance, light; see photodiode). This is called the "reverse bias" phenomenon.


title: Diode

text: However, if the polarity of the external voltage opposes the built-in potential, recombination can once again proceed, resulting in a substantial electric current through the p–n junction (i.e. substantial numbers of electrons and holes recombine at the junction). For silicon diodes, the built-in potential is approximately 0.7 V (0.3 V for germanium and 0.2 V for Schottky). Thus, if an external voltage greater than and opposite to the built-in voltage is applied, a current will flow and the diode is said to be "turned on" as it has been given an external "forward bias". The diode is commonly said to have a forward "threshold" voltage, above which it conducts and below which conduction stops. However, this is only an approximation as the forward characteristic is smooth (see I-V graph above).


title: Diode

text: In a small silicon diode operating at its rated currents, the voltage drop is about 0.6 to 0.7 volts. The value is different for other diode types—Schottky diodes can be rated as low as 0.2 V, germanium diodes 0.25 to 0.3 V, and red or blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) can have values of 1.4 V and 4.0 V respectively.


title: Diode

text: At higher currents, the forward voltage drop of the diode increases. A drop of 1 V to 1.5 V is typical at full rated current for power diodes.


title: Diode

text: The "Shockley ideal diode equation" or the "diode law" (named after the bipolar junction transistor co-inventor William Bradford Shockley) gives the I–V characteristic of an ideal diode in either forward or reverse bias (or no bias). The following equation is called the "Shockley ideal diode equation" when "n", the ideality factor, is set equal to 1 :


title: Diode

text: The thermal voltage "V" is approximately 25.85 mV at 300 K, a temperature close to "room temperature" commonly used in device simulation software. At any temperature it is a known constant defined by:


title: Diode

text: where "k" is the Boltzmann constant, "T" is the absolute temperature of the p–n junction, and "q" is the magnitude of charge of an electron (the elementary charge).


title: Diode

text: The reverse saturation current, "I", is not constant for a given device, but varies with temperature; usually more significantly than "V", so that "V" typically decreases as "T" increases.


title: Diode

text: The "Shockley ideal diode equation" or the "diode law" is derived with the assumption that the only processes giving rise to the current in the diode are drift (due to electrical field), diffusion, and thermal recombination–generation (R–G) (this equation is derived by setting n = 1 above). It also assumes that the R–G current in the depletion region is insignificant. This means that the "Shockley ideal diode equation" does not account for the processes involved in the reverse breakdown and photon-assisted R–G. Additionally, it does not describe the "leveling off" of the I–V curve at high forward bias due to internal resistance. Introducing the ideality factor, n, accounts for recombination and generation of carriers.


title: Diode

text: Under "reverse bias" voltages the exponential in the diode equation is negligible, and the current is a constant (negative) reverse current value of −"I". The reverse "breakdown region" is not modeled by the Shockley diode equation.


title: Diode

text: For even rather small "forward bias" voltages the exponential is very large since the thermal voltage is very small in comparison. The subtracted '1' in the diode equation is then negligible and the forward diode current can be approximated by


title: Diode

text: At forward voltages less than the saturation voltage, the voltage versus current characteristic curve of most diodes is not a straight line. The current can be approximated by formula_3 as mentioned in the previous section.


title: Diode

text: In detector and mixer applications, the current can be estimated by a Taylor's series. The odd terms can be omitted because they produce frequency components that are outside the pass band of the mixer or detector. Even terms beyond the second derivative usually need not be included because they are small compared to the second order term. The desired current component is approximately proportional to the square of the input voltage, so the response is called "square law" in this region.


title: Diode

text: Following the end of forwarding conduction in a p–n type diode, a reverse current can flow for a short time. The device does not attain its blocking capability until the mobile charge in the junction is depleted.


title: Diode

text: The effect can be significant when switching large currents very quickly. A certain amount of "reverse recovery time" (on the order of tens of nanoseconds to a few microseconds) may be required to remove the reverse recovery charge from the diode. During this recovery time, the diode can actually conduct in the reverse direction. This might give rise to a large current in the reverse direction for a short time while the diode is reverse biased. The magnitude of such a reverse current is determined by the operating circuit (i.e., the series resistance) and the diode is said to be in the storage-phase. In certain real-world cases it is important to consider the losses that are incurred by this non-ideal diode effect. However, when the slew rate of the current is not so severe (e.g. Line frequency) the effect can be safely ignored. For most applications, the effect is also negligible for Schottky diodes.


title: Diode

text: The reverse current ceases abruptly when the stored charge is depleted; this abrupt stop is exploited in step recovery diodes for the generation of extremely short pulses.


title: Diode

text: Normal (p–n) diodes, which operate as described above, are usually made of doped silicon or germanium. Before the development of silicon power rectifier diodes, cuprous oxide and later selenium was used. Their low efficiency required a much higher forward voltage to be applied (typically 1.4 to 1.7 V per "cell", with multiple cells stacked so as to increase the peak inverse voltage rating for application in high voltage rectifiers), and required a large heat sink (often an extension of the diode's metal substrate), much larger than the later silicon diode of the same current ratings would require. The vast majority of all diodes are the p–n diodes found in CMOS integrated circuits, which include two diodes per pin and many other internal diodes.


title: Diode

text: Other uses for semiconductor diodes include the sensing of temperature, and computing analog logarithms (see Operational amplifier applications#Logarithmic output).


title: Diode

text: The symbol used to represent a particular type of diode in a circuit diagram conveys the general electrical function to the reader. There are alternative symbols for some types of diodes, though the differences are minor. The triangle in the symbols points to the forward direction, i.e. in the direction of conventional current flow.


title: Diode

text: There are a number of common, standard and manufacturer-driven numbering and coding schemes for diodes; the two most common being the EIA/JEDEC standard and the European Pro Electron standard:


title: Diode

text: The standardized 1N-series numbering "EIA370" system was introduced in the US by EIA/JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council) about 1960. Most diodes have a 1-prefix designation (e.g., 1N4003). Among the most popular in this series were: 1N34A/1N270 (germanium signal), 1N914/1N4148 (silicon signal), 1N400x (silicon 1A power rectifier), and 1N580x (silicon 3A power rectifier).


title: Diode

text: The JIS semiconductor designation system has all semiconductor diode designations starting with "1S".


title: Diode

text: The European Pro Electron coding system for active components was introduced in 1966 and comprises two letters followed by the part code. The first letter represents the semiconductor material used for the component (A = germanium and B = silicon) and the second letter represents the general function of the part (for diodes, A = low-power/signal, B = variable capacitance, X = multiplier, Y = rectifier and Z = voltage reference); for example:


title: Diode

text: In optics, an equivalent device for the diode but with laser light would be the optical isolator, also known as an optical diode, that allows light to only pass in one direction. It uses a Faraday rotator as the main component.


title: Diode

text: The first use for the diode was the demodulation of amplitude modulated (AM) radio broadcasts. The history of this discovery is treated in depth in the crystal detector article. In summary, an AM signal consists of alternating positive and negative peaks of a radio carrier wave, whose amplitude or envelope is proportional to the original audio signal. The diode rectifies the AM radio frequency signal, leaving only the positive peaks of the carrier wave. The audio is then extracted from the rectified carrier wave using a simple filter and fed into an audio amplifier or transducer, which generates sound waves via audio speaker.


title: Diode

text: In microwave and millimeter wave technology, beginning in the 1930s, researchers improved and miniaturized the crystal detector. Point contact diodes ("crystal diodes") and Schottky diodes are used in radar, microwave and millimeter wave detectors.


title: Diode

text: Rectifiers are constructed from diodes, where they are used to convert alternating current (AC) electricity into direct current (DC). Automotive alternators are a common example, where the diode, which rectifies the AC into DC, provides better performance than the commutator or earlier, dynamo. Similarly, diodes are also used in "Cockcroft–Walton voltage multipliers" to convert AC into higher DC voltages.


title: Diode

text: Since most electronic circuits can be damaged when the polarity of their power supply inputs are reversed, a series diode is sometimes used to protect against such situations. This concept is known by multiple naming variations that mean the same thing: reverse voltage protection, reverse polarity protection, and reverse battery protection.


title: Diode

text: Diodes are frequently used to conduct damaging high voltages away from sensitive electronic devices. They are usually reverse-biased (non-conducting) under normal circumstances. When the voltage rises above the normal range, the diodes become forward-biased (conducting). For example, diodes are used in (stepper motor and H-bridge) motor controller and relay circuits to de-energize coils rapidly without the damaging voltage spikes that would otherwise occur. (A diode used in such an application is called a flyback diode). Many integrated circuits also incorporate diodes on the connection pins to prevent external voltages from damaging their sensitive transistors. Specialized diodes are used to protect from over-voltages at higher power (see Diode types above).


title: Diode

text: Diodes can be combined with other components to construct AND and OR logic gates. This is referred to as diode logic.


title: Diode

text: In addition to light, mentioned above, semiconductor diodes are sensitive to more energetic radiation. In electronics, cosmic rays and other sources of ionizing radiation cause noise pulses and single and multiple bit errors.


title: Diode

text: This effect is sometimes exploited by particle detectors to detect radiation. A single particle of radiation, with thousands or millions of electron volt, s of energy, generates many charge carrier pairs, as its energy is deposited in the semiconductor material. If the depletion layer is large enough to catch the whole shower or to stop a heavy particle, a fairly accurate measurement of the particle's energy can be made, simply by measuring the charge conducted and without the complexity of a magnetic spectrometer, etc.


title: Diode

text: These semiconductor radiation detectors need efficient and uniform charge collection and low leakage current. They are often cooled by liquid nitrogen. For longer-range (about a centimeter) particles, they need a very large depletion depth and large area. For short-range particles, they need any contact or un-depleted semiconductor on at least one surface to be very thin. The back-bias voltages are near breakdown (around a thousand volts per centimeter). Germanium and silicon are common materials. Some of these detectors sense position as well as energy.


title: Diode

text: They have a finite life, especially when detecting heavy particles, because of radiation damage. Silicon and germanium are quite different in their ability to convert gamma rays to electron showers.


title: Diode

text: Semiconductor detectors for high-energy particles are used in large numbers. Because of energy loss fluctuations, accurate measurement of the energy deposited is of less use.


title: Diode

text: A diode can be used as a temperature measuring device, since the forward voltage drop across the diode depends on temperature, as in a silicon bandgap temperature sensor. From the Shockley ideal diode equation given above, it might "appear" that the voltage has a "positive" temperature coefficient (at a constant current), but usually the variation of the reverse saturation current term is more significant than the variation in the thermal voltage term. Most diodes therefore have a "negative" temperature coefficient, typically −2 mV/°C for silicon diodes. The temperature coefficient is approximately constant for temperatures above about 20 kelvin. Some graphs are given for 1N400x series, and CY7 cryogenic temperature sensor.


title: Diode

text: Diodes will prevent currents in unintended directions. To supply power to an electrical circuit during a power failure, the circuit can draw current from a battery. An uninterruptible power supply may use diodes in this way to ensure that the current is only drawn from the battery when necessary. Likewise, small boats typically have two circuits each with their own battery/batteries: one used for engine starting; one used for domestics. Normally, both are charged from a single alternator, and a heavy-duty split-charge diode is used to prevent the higher-charge battery (typically the engine battery) from discharging through the lower-charge battery when the alternator is not running.


title: Diode

text: Diodes are also used in electronic musical keyboards. To reduce the amount of wiring needed in electronic musical keyboards, these instruments often use keyboard matrix circuits. The keyboard controller scans the rows and columns to determine which note the player has pressed. The problem with matrix circuits is that, when several notes are pressed at once, the current can flow backward through the circuit and trigger "phantom keys" that cause "ghost" notes to play. To avoid triggering unwanted notes, most keyboard matrix circuits have diodes soldered with the switch under each key of the musical keyboard. The same principle is also used for the switch matrix in solid-state pinball machines.


title: Diode

text: A diode clamp circuit can take a periodic alternating current signal that oscillates between positive and negative values, and vertically displace it such that either the positive or the negative peaks occur at a prescribed level. The clamper does not restrict the peak-to-peak excursion of the signal, it moves the whole signal up or down so as to place the peaks at the reference level.


title: Diode

text: Diodes are usually referred to as "D" for diode on PCBs. Sometimes the abbreviation "CR" for "crystal rectifier" is used.


title: Janus

text: In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus ( ; ) is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces. The month of January is named for Janus ("Ianuarius"). According to ancient Roman farmers' almanacs, Juno was mistaken as the tutelary deity of the month of January; but, Juno is the tutelary deity of the month of June.


title: Janus

text: Janus presided over the beginning and ending of conflict, and hence war and peace. The gates of a building in Rome named after him (not a temple, as it is often called, but an open enclosure with gates at each end) were opened in time of war, and closed to mark the arrival of peace. As a god of transitions, he had functions pertaining to birth and to journeys and exchange, and in his association with Portunus, a similar harbor and gateway god, he was concerned with travelling, trading and shipping.


title: Janus

text: Janus had no flamen or specialised priest "(sacerdos)" assigned to him, but the King of the Sacred Rites "(rex sacrorum)" himself carried out his ceremonies. Janus had a ubiquitous presence in religious ceremonies throughout the year. As such, Janus was ritually invoked at the beginning of each ceremony, regardless of the main deity honored on any particular occasion.


title: Janus

text: While the ancient Greeks had no known equivalent to Janus, there is considerate overlap with Culśanś of the Etruscan pantheon.


title: Janus

text: The name of the god "Iānus", meaning in Latin 'arched passage, doorway', stems from Proto-Italic "*iānu" ('door'), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European "*ieh₂nu" ('passage'). It is cognate with Sanskrit "yāti" ('to go, travel'), Lithuanian "jóti" ('to go, ride'), Irish "áth" ('ford') or Serbo-Croatian "jàhati" ('to ride').


title: Janus

text: Iānus would then be an action name expressing the idea of going, passing, formed on the root *yā- < *y-eð- theme II of the root *ey- go from which eō, ειμι. Other modern scholars object to an Indo-European etymology either from Dianus or from root *yā-.


title: Janus

text: Three etymologies were proposed by ancient erudites, each of them bearing implications about the nature of the god. The first one is based on the definition of Chaos given by Paul the Deacon: "hiantem", "hiare", "be open", from which the word "Ianus" would derive by the loss of the initial aspirate. In this etymology, the notion of Chaos would define the primordial nature of the god.


title: Janus

text: Another etymology proposed by Nigidius Figulus is related by Macrobius: "Ianus" would be Apollo and Diana "Iana", by the addition of a "D" for the sake of euphony. This explanation has been accepted by A. B. Cook and J. G. Frazer. It supports all the assimilations of Janus to the bright sky, the sun and the moon. It supposes a former *Dianus, formed on *dia- < *dy-eð from the Indo-European root *dey- shine represented in Latin by "dies" day, Diovis and Iuppiter. However the form Dianus postulated by Nigidius is not attested.


title: Janus

text: A third etymology indicated by Cicero, Ovid and Macrobius, which explains the name as Latin, deriving it from the verb "ire" ("to go") is based on the interpretation of Janus as the god of beginnings and transitions.


title: Janus

text: While the fundamental nature of Janus is debated, in most modern scholars' view the god's functions may be seen as being organized around a single principle: presiding over all beginnings and transitions, whether abstract or concrete, sacred or profane. Interpretations concerning the god's fundamental nature either limit it to this general function or emphasize a concrete or particular aspect of it (identifying him with light the sun, the moon, time, movement, the year, doorways, bridges etc.) or else see in the god a sort of cosmological principle, interpreting him as a uranic deity.


title: Janus

text: His function as god of beginnings has been clearly expressed in numerous ancient sources, among them most notably Cicero, Ovid, and Varro. As a god of motion, Janus looks after passages, causes actions to start and presides over all beginnings. Since movement and change are interconnected, he has a double nature, symbolised in his two headed image. He has under his tutelage the stepping in and out of the door of homes, the "ianua", which took its name from him, and not vice versa. Similarly, his tutelage extends to the covered passages named "iani" and foremost to the gates of the city, including the cultic gate of the ', named ' or "" from which he protects Rome against the Sabines. He is also present at the Sororium Tigillum, where he guards the terminus of the ways into Rome from Latium. He has an altar, later a temple near the "Porta Carmentalis", where the road leading to Veii ended, as well as being present on the Janiculum, a gateway from Rome out to Etruria.


title: Janus

text: The connection of the notions of beginning ("principium"), movement, transition ("eundo"), and thence time was clearly expressed by Cicero.


title: Janus

text: In general, Janus is at the origin of time as the guardian of the gates of Heaven: Jupiter himself can move forth and back because of Janus's working. In one of his temples, probably that of Forum Holitorium, the hands of his statue were positioned to signify the number 355 (the number of days in a lunar year), later 365, symbolically expressing his mastership over time. He presides over the concrete and abstract beginnings of the world, such as religion and the gods themselves, he too holds the access to Heaven and to other gods: this is the reason why men must invoke him first, regardless of the god they want to pray to or placate. He is the initiator of human life, of new historical ages, and financial enterprises: according to myth he was the first to mint coins and the as, first coin of the liberal series, bears his effigy on one face.


title: Janus

text: Janus frequently symbolized change and transitions such as the progress of past to future, from one condition to another, from one vision to another, and young people's growth to adulthood. He represented time because he could see into the past with one face and into the future with the other. Hence, Janus was worshipped at the beginnings of the harvest and planting times, as well as at marriages, deaths and other beginnings. He represented the middle ground between barbarism and civilization, rural and urban space, youth and adulthood. Having jurisdiction over beginnings Janus had an intrinsic association with omens and auspices.


title: Janus

text: Leonhard Schmitz suggests that he was likely the most important god in the Roman archaic "pantheon". He was often invoked together with "Iuppiter" (Jupiter).


title: Janus

text: In several of his works G. Dumézil proposed the existence of a structural difference in level between the Proto-Indo-European gods of beginning and ending, and the other gods whom Dumézil postulated fall into a tripartite structure, reflecting the most ancient organization of society. So in IE religions there is an introducer god (such as Vedic Vâyu and Roman Janus) and a god of ending, and a nurturer goddess who is often also a fire spirit (such as Roman Vesta, Vedic Saraswati and Agni, Avestic Armaiti and Anâitâ) who show a sort of mutual solidarity.


title: Janus

text: The concept of 'god of ending' is defined in connection to the human point of reference, i.e. the current situation of man in the universe, and not to endings as transitions into new circumstances, which are under the jurisdiction of the gods of beginning, owing to the ambivalent nature of the concept. Thus the god of beginning is not structurally reducible to a sovereign god, nor the goddess of ending to any of the three categories on to which Dumézil distributed goddesses. There is though a greater degree of fuzziness concerning the function and role of goddesses, which may have formed a preexisting structure allowing the absorption of the local Mediterranean mother goddesses, nurturers, and protectresses .


title: Janus

text: As a consequence, the position of the gods of beginning would not be the issue of a diachronic process of debasement undergone by a supreme sky god, but rather a structural feature inherent to the culture's theology. The descent of primordial sky gods into the condition of "deus otiosus" is a well-known phenomenon in many religions.


title: Janus

text: Dumézil himself observed and discussed in many of his works the phenomenon of the fall of archaic celestial deities in numerous societies of ethnologic interest.


title: Janus

text: Mircea Eliade evaluated Dumezil's views (1946) positively, and recommended their use in comparative research on Indo-European religions.


title: Janus

text: According to Macrobius who cites Nigidius Figulus and Cicero, "Janus" and "Jana" (Diana) are a pair of divinities, worshipped as Apollo or the sun and moon, whence Janus received sacrifices before all the others, because through him is apparent the way of access to the desired deity.


title: Janus

text: A similar solar interpretation has been offered by A. Audin who interprets the god as the issue of a long process of development, starting with the Sumeric cultures, from the two solar pillars located on the eastern side of temples, each of them marking the direction of the rising sun at the dates of the two solstices: the southeastern corresponding to the Winter and the northeastern to the Summer solstice. These two pillars would be at the origin of the theology of the divine twins, one of whom is mortal (related to the NE pillar, nearest the Northern region where the sun does not shine) and the other is immortal (related to the SE pillar and the Southern region where the sun always shines). Later these iconographic models evolved in the Middle East and Egypt into a single column representing two torsos and finally a single body with two heads looking at opposite directions.


title: Janus

text: Numa in his regulation of the Roman calendar called the first month "Januarius" after Janus, according to tradition considered the highest divinity at the time.


title: Janus

text: Numa built the "Ianus geminus" (also "Janus Bifrons", "Janus Quirinus" or "Portae Belli"), a passage ritually opened at times of war, and shut again when Roman arms rested. It formed a walled enclosure with gates at each end, situated between the old Roman Forum and that of Julius Caesar, which had been consecrated by Numa Pompilius himself. About the exact location and aspect of the temple there has been much debate among scholars. In wartime the gates of the Janus were opened, and in its interior sacrifices and "vaticinia" were held, to forecast the outcome of military deeds. The doors were closed only during peacetime, an extremely rare event. The function of the Ianus Geminus was supposed to be a sort of good omen: in time of peace it was said to close the wars within or to keep peace inside; in times of war it was said to be open to allow the return of the people on duty.


title: Janus

text: A temple of Janus is said to have been consecrated by the consul Gaius Duilius in 260 BC after the Battle of Mylae in the Forum Holitorium. It contained a statue of the god with the right hand showing the number 300 and the left the number 65—i.e., the length in days of the solar year, and twelve altars, one for each month.


title: Janus

text: The four-sided structure known as the Arch of Janus in the Forum Transitorium dates from the 1st century of the Christian era: according to common opinion it was built by the Emperor Domitian. However American scholars L. Ross Taylor and L. Adams Holland on the grounds of a passage of Statius maintain that it was an earlier structure (tradition has it the "Ianus Quadrifrons" was brought to Rome from Falerii) and that Domitian only surrounded it with his new forum. In fact the building of the Forum Transitorium was completed and inaugurated by Nerva in AD 96.


title: Janus

text: Another way of investigating the complex nature of Janus is by systematically analysing his cultic epithets: religious documents may preserve a notion of a deity's theology more accurately than other literary sources.


title: Janus

text: The main sources of Janus's cult epithets are the fragments of the Carmen Saliare preserved by Varro in his work De Lingua Latina, a list preserved in a passage of Macrobius's Saturnalia (I 9, 15–16), another in a passage of Johannes Lydus's De Mensibus (IV 1), a list in Cedrenus's "Historiarum Compendium" (I p. 295 7 Bonn), partly dependent on Lydus's, and one in Servius Honoratus's commentary to the "Aeneis" (VII 610). Literary works also preserve some of Janus's cult epithets, such as Ovid's long passage of the "Fasti" devoted to Janus at the beginning of Book I (89–293), Tertullian, Augustine and Arnobius.


title: Janus

text: As may be expected the opening verses of the Carmen, are devoted to honouring Janus, thence were named '. Paul the Deacon mentions the '. Only part of the ' and two of the " are preserved.


title: Janus

text: they vary widely in dubious points and are all tentative, nonetheless one can identify with certainty some epithets:


title: Janus

text: The above-mentioned sources give: "Ianus Geminus, I. Pater, I. Iunonius, I. Consivius, I. Quirinus, I. Patulcius and Clusivius" (Macrobius above I 9, 15): Ι. Κονσίβιον, Ι. Κήνουλον, Ι. Κιβουλλιον, I. Πατρίκιον, I. Κλουσίβιον, I. Ιουνώνιον, I. Κυρινον, I. Πατούλκιον, I. Κλούσιον, I. Κουριάτιον (Lydus above IV 1); I. Κιβούλλιον, I. Κυρινον, I. Κονσαιον, I. Πατρίκιον (Cedrenus "Historiarum Compendium" I p. 295 7 Bonn); "I. Clusiuius, I. Patulcius, I. Iunonius, I. Quirinus" (Servius "Aen." VII 610).


title: Janus

text: Even though the lists overlap to a certain extent (five epithets are common to Macrobius's and Lydus's list), the explanations of the epithets differ remarkably. Macrobius's list and explanation are probably based directly on Cornelius Labeo's work, as he cites this author often in his "Saturnalia", as when he gives a list of Maia's cult epithets and mentions one of his works, "Fasti". In relating Janus' epithets Macrobius states: "We invoke in the sacred rites". Labeo himself, as it is stated in the passage on Maia, read them in the lists of indigitamenta of the libri pontificum. On the other hand, Lydus's authority cannot have consulted these documents precisely because he offers different (and sometimes bizarre) explanations for the common epithets: it seems likely he received a list with no interpretations appended and his interpretations are only his own.


title: Janus

text: "Pater" is perhaps the most frequent epithet of Janus, found also in the composition "Ianuspater". While numerous gods share this cultic epithet it seems the Romans felt it was typically pertinent to Janus. When invoked along with other gods, usually only he is called pater. For Janus the title is not just a term of respect; principally it marks his primordial role. He is the first of the gods and thus their father: the formula "quasi deorum deum" corresponds to "diuum deus" of the carmen Saliare. Similarly, in the expression "duonus Cerus", Cerus means creator and is considered a masculine form related to Ceres.


title: Janus

text: Lydus gives Πατρίκιος (Patricius) and explains it as "autóchthon": since he does not give another epithet corresponding to Pater it may be inferred that Lydus understands Patricius as a synonym of Pater. There is no evidence connecting Janus to gentilician cults or identifying him as a national god particularly venerated by the oldest patrician families.


title: Janus

text: "Geminus" is the first epithet in Macrobius's list. Although the etymology of the word is unclear, it is certainly related to his most typical character, that of having two faces or heads. The proof are the numerous equivalent expressions. The origin of this epithet might be either concrete, referring directly to the image of the god reproduced on coins and supposed to have been introduced by king Numa in the sanctuary at the lowest point of the Argiletum, or to a feature of the Ianus of the "Porta Belli", the double gate ritually opened at the beginning of wars, or abstract, deriving metaphorically from the liminal, intermediary functions of the god themselves: both in time and space passages connected two different spheres, realms or worlds. The "Janus quadrifrons" or "quadriformis", brought according to tradition from Falerii in 241 BC and installed by Domitian in the Forum Transitorium, although having a different meaning, seems to be connected to the same theological complex, as its image purports an ability to rule over every direction, element and time of the year. It did not give rise to a new epithet though.


title: Janus

text: "Patulcius" and "Clusivius" or "Clusius" are epithets related to an inherent quality and function of doors, that of standing open or shut. Janus as the Gatekeeper has jurisdiction over every kind of door and passage and the power of opening or closing them. Servius interprets Patulcius in the same way. Lydus gives an incorrect translation, "αντί του οδαιον" which however reflects one of the attributes of the god, that of being the protector of roads. Elsewhere Lydus cites the epithet θυρέος to justify the key held by Janus. The antithetical quality of the two epithets is meant to refer to the alterning opposite conditions and is commonly found in the "indigitamenta": in relation to Janus, Macrobius cites instances of Antevorta and Postvorta, the personifications of two indigitations of Carmentis.


title: Janus

text: These epithets are associated with the ritual function of Janus in the opening of the "" or "Porta Belli". The rite might go back to times pre-dating the founding of Rome. Poets tried to explain this rite by imagining that the gate closed either war or peace inside the "ianus", but in its religious significance it might have been meant to propitiate the return home of the victorious soldiers.


title: Janus

text: "Quirinus" is a debated epithet. According to some scholars, mostly Francophone, it looks to be strictly related to the ideas of the passage of the Roman people from war back to peace, from the condition of "miles", soldier, to that of "quiris", citizen occupied in peaceful business, as the rites of the "Porta Belli" imply. This is in fact the usual sense of the word "quirites" in Latin. Other scholars, mainly Germanophone, think it is related on the contrary to the martial character of the god Quirinus, an interpretation supported by numerous ancient sources: Lydus, Cedrenus, Macrobius, Ovid, Plutarch and Paul the Daecon.


title: Janus

text: Schilling and Capdeville counter that it is his function of presiding over the return to peace that gave Janus this epithet, as confirmed by his association on 30 March with Pax, Concordia and Salus, even though it is true that Janus as god of all beginnings presides also over that of war and is thus often called "belliger", bringer of war as well as "pacificus". This use is also discussed by Dumézil in various works concerning the armed nature of the "Mars qui praeest paci", the armed quality of the gods of the third function and the arms of the third function.


title: Janus

text: Koch on the other hand sees the epithet Janus Quirinus as a reflection of the god's patronage over the two months beginning and ending the year, after their addition by king Numa in his reform of the calendar. This interpretation too would befit the liminal nature of Janus.


title: Janus

text: The compound term "Ianus Quirinus" was particularly in vogue at the time of Augustus, its peaceful interpretation complying particularly well with the Augustan ideology of the "Pax Romana".


title: Janus

text: The compound "Ianus Quirinus" is to be found also in the rite of the spolia opima, a "lex regia" ascribed to Numa, which prescribed that the third rank spoils of a king or chief killed in battle, those conquered by a common soldier, be consecrated to "Ianus Quirinus". Schilling believes the reference of this rite to Ianus Quirinus to embody the original prophetic interpretation, which ascribes to this deity the last and conclusive spoils of Roman history.


title: Janus

text: The epithet "Ποπάνων (Popanōn)" is attested only by Lydus, who cites Varro as stating that on the day of the kalendae he was offered a cake which earned him this title. There is no surviving evidence of this name in Latin, although the rite is attested by Ovid for the kalendae of January and by Paul. This cake was named "" but the related epithet of Janus could not plausibly have been Ianualis: it has been suggested "Libo" which remains purely hypothetical. The context could allow an Etruscan etymology.


title: Janus

text: Janus owes the epithet "Iunonius" to his function as patron of all kalends, which are also associated with Juno. In Macrobius's explanation: ""Iunonium, as it were, not only does he hold the entry to January, but to all the months: indeed all the kalends are under the jurisdiction of Juno"". At the time when the rising of the new moon was observed by the pontifex minor the rex sacrorum assisted by him offered a sacrifice to Janus in the "Curia Calabra" while the regina sacrorum sacrificed to Juno in the regia.


title: Janus

text: Some scholars have maintained that Juno was the primitive paredra of the god. This point bears on the nature of Janus and Juno and is at the core of an important dispute: was Janus a debased ancient uranic supreme god, or were Janus and Jupiter co-existent, their distinct identities structurally inherent to their original theology?


title: Janus

text: Among Francophone scholars Grimal and (implicitly and partially) Renard and Basanoff have supported the view of a uranic supreme god against Dumézil and Schilling. Among Anglophone scholars Frazer and Cook have suggested an interpretation of Janus as uranic supreme god.


title: Janus

text: Whatever the case, it is certain that Janus and Juno show a peculiar reciprocal affinity: while Janus is "Iunonius", Juno is "Ianualis", as she presides over childbirth and the menstrual cycle, and opens doors. Moreover, besides the kalends Janus and Juno are also associated at the rite of the Tigillum Sororium of 1 October, in which they bear the epithets "Ianus Curiatius" and "Iuno Sororia". These epithets, which swap the functional qualities of the gods, are the most remarkable apparent proof of their proximity. The rite is discussed in detail in the section below.


title: Janus

text: "Consivius", sower, is an epithet that reflects the tutelary function of the god at the first instant of human life and of life in general, conception. This function is a particular case of his function of patron of beginnings. As far as man is concerned it is obviously of the greatest importance, even though both Augustine and some modern scholars see it as minor. Augustine shows astonishment at the fact that some of the dii selecti may be engaged in such tasks: ""In fact Janus himself first, when pregnancy is conceived, ... opens the way to receiving the semen"".


title: Janus

text: Varro on the other hand had clear the relevance of the function of starting a new life by opening the way to the semen and therefore started his enumeration of the gods with Janus, following the pattern of the Carmen Saliare. Macrobius gives the same interpretation of the epithet in his list: ""Consivius from sowing (conserendo), i. e. from the propagation of the human genre, that is disseminated by the working of Janus"." as the most ancient form. He though does not consider "" to be an epithet of Janus but a theonym in its own right.


title: Janus

text: Lydus understands as βουλαιον () owing to a conflation with Consus through Ops Consiva or Consivia. The interpretation of Consus as god of advice is already present in Latin authors and is due to a folk etymology supported by the story of the abduction of the Sabine women, (which happened on the day of the Consualia aestiva), said to have been advised by Consus. However no Latin source cites relationships of any kind between Consus and Janus Consivius. Moreover, both the passages that this etymology requires present difficulties, particularly as it seems Consus cannot be etymologically related to adjective ' or ', found in Ops Consivia and thence the implied notion of sowing.


title: Janus

text: "Κήνουλος () "and "Κιβουλλιος ()" are not attested by Latin sources. The second epithet is not to be found in Lydus's manuscripts and is present in Cedrenus along with its explanation concerning food and nurture. The editor of Lydus R. Wünsch has added Cedrenus's passage after Lydus's own explanation of Coenulus as ευωχιαστικός, good host at a banquet. Capdeville considers Cedrenus' text to be due to a paleographic error: only "Coenulus" is indubitably an epithet of Janus and the adjective used to explain it, meaning to present and to treat well at dinner, was used in a ritual invocation before meals, wishing the diners to make good flesh. This is one of the features of Janus as shown by the myth that associates him with Carna, Cardea, Crane.


title: Janus

text: The epithet "Curiatius" is found in association with "Iuno Sororia" as designating the deity to which one of the two altars behind the Tigillum Sororium was dedicated. Festus and other ancient authors explain Curiatius by the aetiological legend of the Tigillum: the expiation undergone by P. Horatius after his victory over the Alban Curiatii for the murder of his own sister, by walking under a beam with his head veiled.


title: Janus

text: Capdeville sees this epithet as related exclusively to the characters of the legend and the rite itself: He cites the analysis by Dumézil as his authority.


title: Janus

text: Schilling supposes it was probably a ' originally entrusted to the ' that allowed the desacralisation of the ' at the end of the military season, later transferred to the state. Janus's patronage of a rite of passage would be natural. The presence of Juno would be related to the date (Kalends), her protection of the ', soldiers, or the legend itself.


title: Janus

text: Schilling's opinion is that it is related to "curia", as the Tigillum was located not far from the "".


title: Janus

text: Renard considered Schilling's interpretation unacceptable, even though supported by an inscription (') because of the different quantity of the "u", short in ', ' and ' and long in "". Moreover, it is part of the different interpretation of the meaning of the ritual of the Tigillum Sororium proposed by Herbert Jennings Rose, Kurt Latte, and Robert Schilling himself.


title: Janus

text: Renard connects the epithet's meaning to the ' or ', the spear of Juno Curitis as here she is given the epithet of "Sororia", corresponding to the usual epithet "Geminus" of Janus and to the twin or feminine nature of the passage between two coupled posts.


title: Janus

text: The rites concerning Janus were numerous. Owing to the versatile and far reaching character of his basic function marking all beginnings and transitions, his presence was ubiquitous and fragmented. Apart from the rites solemnizing the beginning of the new year and of every month, there were the special times of the year which marked the beginning and closing of the military season, in March and October respectively. These included the rite of the "arma movēre" on 1 March and that of the "arma condĕre" at the end of the month performed by the Salii, and the "Tigillum Sororium" on 1 October. Janus Quirinus was closely associated with the anniversaries of the dedications of the temples of Mars on 1 June (a date that corresponded with the festival of Carna, a deity associated with Janus: see below) and of that of Quirinus on 29 June (which was the last day of the month in the pre-Julian calendar). These important rites are discussed in detail below.


title: Janus

text: Any rite or religious act whatever required the invocation of Janus first, with a corresponding invocation to Vesta at the end ("Janus primus" and "Vesta extrema"). Instances are to be found in the "Carmen Saliare", the formula of the devotio, the lustration of the fields and the sacrifice of the "porca praecidanea", the "Acta" of the Arval Brethren.


title: Janus

text: Although Janus had no flamen, he was closely associated with the rex sacrorum who performed his sacrifices and took part in most of his rites: the "rex" held the first place in the ordo sacerdotum, hierarchy of priests. The flamen of Portunus performed the ritual greasing of the spear of the god Quirinus on 17 August, day of the Portunalia, on the same date that the temple of Janus in the Forum Holitorium had been consecrated by consul Gaius Duilius in 260 BC.


title: Janus

text: The winter solstice was thought to occur on 25 December. On 1 January was New Year's Day: the day was consecrated to Janus since it was the first of the new year and of the month (kalends) of Janus: the "feria" had an augural character as Romans believed the beginning of anything was an omen for the whole. Thus on that day it was customary to exchange cheerful words of good wishes. For the same reason everybody devoted a short time to his usual business, exchanged dates, figs and honey as a token of well wishing and made gifts of coins called "strenae". Cakes made of spelt ("far") and salt were offered to the god and burnt on the altar. Ovid states that in most ancient times there were no animal sacrifices and gods were propitiated with offerings of spelt and pure salt. This ' was named ' and it was probably correspondent to the "summanal" offered the day before the Summer solstice to god Summanus, which however was sweet being made with flour, honey and milk.


title: Janus

text: Shortly afterwards, on 9 January, on the "" of the Agonium of January the rex sacrorum offered the sacrifice of a ram to Janus.


title: Janus

text: At the kalends of each month the and the pontifex minor offered a sacrifice to Janus in the curia Calabra, while the regina offered a sow or a she lamb to Juno.


title: Janus

text: Morning belonged to Janus: men started their daily activities and business. Horace calls him "Matutine Pater", morning father. G. Dumézil believes this custom is at the origin of the learned interpretations of Janus as a solar deity.


title: Janus

text: Janus was also involved in spatial transitions, presiding over home doors, city gates and boundaries. Numerous toponyms of places located at the boundary between the territory of two communities, especially Etrurians and Latins or Umbrians, are named after the god. The most notable instance is the Ianiculum which marked the access to Etruria from Rome. Since borders often coincided with rivers and the border of Rome (and other Italics) with Etruria was the Tiber, it has been argued that its crossing had a religious connotation; it would have involved a set of rigorous apotropaic practices and a devotional attitude. Janus would have originally regulated particularly the crossing of this sacred river through the pons sublicius.


title: Janus

text: The name of the Iāniculum is not derived by that of the god, but from the abstract noun "iānus, -us". Adams Holland opines it would have been originally the name of a small bridge connecting the Tiber Island (on which she supposes the first shrine of Janus stood) with the right bank of the river.


title: Janus

text: However Janus was the protector of doors, gates and roadways in general, as is shown by his two symbols, the key and the staff. The key too was a sign that the traveller had come to a harbour or ford in peace to exchange his goods.


title: Janus

text: The rite of the bride's oiling the posts of the door of her new home with wolf fat at her arrival, though not mentioning Janus explicitly, is a rite of passage related to the "ianua".


title: Janus

text: The rites of the Salii marked the springtime beginning of the war season in March and its closing in October. The structure of the patrician sodalitas, made up by the two groups of the Salii Palatini, who were consecrated to Mars and whose institution was traditionally ascribed to Numa (with headquarter on the Palatine), and the Salii Collini or Agonales, consecrated to Quirinus and whose foundation was ascribed to Tullus Hostilius, (with headquarter on the Quirinal) reflects in its division the dialectic symbolic role they played in the rites of the opening and closing of the military season. So does the legend of their foundation itself: the peace-loving king Numa instituted the Salii of Mars Gradivus, foreseeing the future wars of the Romans while the warmonger king Tullus, in a battle during a longstanding war with the Sabines, swore to found a second group of Salii should he obtain victory.


title: Janus

text: The paradox of the pacifist king serving Mars and passage to war and of the warmonger king serving Quirinus to achieve peace under the expected conditions highlights the dialectic nature of the cooperation between the two gods, inherent to their own function. Because of the working of the talismans of the sovereign god they guaranteed alternatively force and victory, fecundity and plenty. It is noteworthy that the two groups of Salii did not split their competences so that one group only opened the way to war and the other to peace: they worked together both at the opening and the conclusion of the military season, marking the passage of power from one god to the other. Thus the Salii enacted the dialectic nature present in the warring and peaceful aspect of the Roman people, particularly the "iuvenes".


title: Janus

text: This dialectic was reflected materially by the location of the temple of Mars outside the pomerium and of the temple of Quirinus inside it. The annual dialectic rhythm of the rites of the Salii of March and October was also further reflected within the rites of each month and spatially by their repeated crossing of the pomerial line. The rites of March started on the first with the ceremony of the "ancilia movere", developed through the month on the 14th with Equirria in the Campus Martius (and the rite of Mamurius Veturius marking the expulsion of the old year), the 17th with the Agonium Martiale, the 19th with the Quinquatrus in the Comitium (which correspond symmetrically with the Armilustrium of 19 October), on the 23rd with the Tubilustrium and they terminated at the end of the month with the rite of the "ancilia condere". Only after this month-long set of rites was accomplished was it fas to undertake military campaigns.


title: Janus

text: While Janus sometimes is named "belliger" and sometimes "pacificus" in accord with his general function of beginner, he is mentioned as "Janus Quirinus" in relation to the closing of the rites of March at the end of the month together with Pax, Salus and Concordia: This feature is a reflection of the aspect of Janus Quirinus which stresses the "quirinal " function of bringing peace back and the hope of soldiers for a victorious return.


title: Janus

text: As the rites of the Salii mimic the passage from peace to war and back to peace by moving between the two poles of Mars and Quirinus in the monthly cycle of March, so they do in the ceremonies of October, the "Equus October" ("October Horse") taking place on the Campus Martius the "Armilustrium", purification of the arms, on the Aventine, and the Tubilustrium on the 23rd. Other correspondences may be found in the dates of the founding of the temples of Mars on 1 June and of that of Quirinus on 29 June, in the pre-Julian calendar the last day of the month, implying that the opening of the month belonged to Mars and the closing to Quirinus.


title: Janus

text: The reciprocity of the two gods' situations is subsumed under the role of opener and closer played by Janus as Ovid states: ""Why are you hidden in peace, and open when the arms have been moved?"" Another analogous correspondence may be found in the festival of the Quirinalia of February, last month of the ancient calendar of Numa. The rite of the opening and closure of the Janus Quirinus would thus reflect the idea of the reintegration of the "miles" into civil society, i.e. the community of the "quirites", by playing a lustral role similar to the "Tigillum Sororium" and the "" located at the south of the Campus Martius. In Augustan ideology this symbolic meaning was strongly emphasised.


title: Janus

text: This rite was supposed to commemorate the expiation of the murder of his own sister by Marcus Horatius. The young hero with his head veiled had to pass under a beam spanning an alley. The rite was repeated every year on 1 October. The "tigillum" consisted of a beam on two posts. It was kept in good condition at public expenses to the time of Livy. Behind the "tigillum", on opposite sides of the alley, stood the two altars of Janus Curiatius and Juno Sororia. Its location was on the vicus leading to the Carinae, perhaps at the point of the crossing of the pomerium. The rite and myth have been interpreted by Dumezil as a purification and desacralization of the soldiers from the religious pollution contracted in war, and a freeing of the warrior from "furor", wrath, as dangerous in the city as it is necessary on campaign.


title: Janus

text: The rite took place on the kalends of October, the month marking the end of the yearly military activity in ancient Rome. Scholars have offered different interpretations of the meaning of Janus Curiatius and Juno Sororia. The association of the two gods with this rite is not immediately clear. It is however apparent that they exchanged their epithets, as Curiatius is connected to (Juno) Curitis and Sororia to (Janus) Geminus. Renard thinks that while Janus is the god of motion and transitions he is not concerned directly with purification, while the arch is more associated with Juno. This fact would be testified by the epithet Sororium, shared by the "tigillum" and the goddess. Juno Curitis is also the protectress of the "iuvenes", the young soldiers. Paul the Deacon states that the "sororium tigillum" was a "sacer" (sacred) place in honour of Juno. Another element linking Juno with Janus is her identification with Carna, suggested by the festival of this deity on the kalends (day of Juno) of June, the month of Juno.


title: Janus

text: Carna was a nymph of the sacred "lucus" of Helernus, made goddess of hinges by Janus with the name of Cardea, and had the power of protecting and purifying thresholds and the doorposts. This would be a further element in explaining the role of Juno in the "Tigillum". It was also customary for new brides to oil the posts of the door of their new homes with wolf fat. In the myth of Janus and Carna (see section below) Carna had the habit when pursued by a young man of asking him out of shyness for a hidden recess and thereupon fleeing: but two headed Janus saw her hiding in a crag under some rocks. Thence the analogy with the rite of the Tigillum Sororium would be apparent: both in the myth and in the rite Janus, the god of motion, goes through a low passage to attain Carna as Horatius passes under the "tigillum" to obtain his purification and the restitution to the condition of citizen eligible for civil activities, including family life. The purification is then the prerequisite for fertility. The custom of attaining lustration and fertility by passing under a gap in rocks, a hole in the soil or a hollow in a tree is widespread.


title: Janus

text: The veiled head of Horatius could also be explained as an apotropaic device if one considers the ' the ' of Juno, the feminine principle of fecundity. Renard concludes that the rite is under the tutelage of both Janus and Juno, being a rite of transition under the patronage of Janus and of desacralisation and fertility under that of Juno: through it the "" coming back from campaign were restituted to their fertile condition of husbands and peasants. Janus is often associated with fecundity in myths, representing the masculine principle of motion, while Juno represents the complementary feminine principle of fertility: the action of the first would allow the manifestation of the other.


title: Janus

text: In discussing myths about Janus, one should be careful in distinguishing those which are ancient and originally Latin and those others which were later attributed to him by Greek mythographers. In the "Fasti" Ovid relates only the myths that associate Janus with Saturn, whom he welcomed as a guest and with whom he eventually shared his kingdom in reward for teaching the art of agriculture, and to the nymph Crane, Grane, or Carna, whom Janus raped and made the goddess of hinges as Cardea, while in the "Metamorphoses" he records his fathering with Venilia the nymph Canens, loved by Picus, first legendary king of the Aborigines.


title: Janus

text: The myth of Crane has been studied by M. Renard and G. Dumezil. The first scholar sees in it a sort of parallel with the theology underlying the rite of the Tigillum Sororium. Crane is a nymph of the sacred wood of Helernus, located at the issue of the Tiber, whose festival of 1 February corresponded with that of Juno Sospita: Crane might be seen as a minor "imago" of the goddess. Her habit of deceiving her male pursuers by hiding in crags in the soil reveals her association not only with vegetation but also with rocks, caverns, and underpassages. Her nature looks to be also associated with vegetation and nurture: G. Dumezil has proved that Helernus was a god of vegetation, vegetative lushness and orchards, particularly associated with vetch. As Ovid writes in his "Fasti", 1 June was the festival day of Carna, besides being the calendary festival of the month of Juno and the festival of Juno Moneta. Ovid seems to purposefully conflate and identify Carna with Cardea in the aetiologic myth related above. Consequently, the association of both Janus and the god Helernus with Carna-Crane is highlighted in this myth: it was customary on that day to eat ivetch (mashed beans) and lard, which were supposed to strengthen the body. Cardea had also magic powers for protecting doorways (by touching thresholds and posts with wet hawthorn twigs) and newborn children by the aggression of the striges (in the myth the young Proca). M. Renard sees the association of Janus with Crane as reminiscent of widespread rites of lustration and fertility performed through ritual walking under low crags or holes in the soil or natural hollows in trees, which in turn are reflected in the lustrative rite of the Tigillum Sororium.


title: Janus

text: Macrobius relates that Janus was supposed to have shared a kingdom with Camese in Latium, in a place then named Camesene. He states that Hyginus recorded the tale on the authority of a Protarchus of Tralles. In Macrobius Camese is a male: after Camese's death Janus reigned alone. However Greek authors make of Camese Janus's sister and spouse: Atheneus citing a certain Drakon of Corcyra writes that Janus fathered with his sister Camese a son named Aithex and a daughter named Olistene. Servius Danielis states Tiber (i.e., Tiberinus) was their son.


title: Janus

text: Arnobius writes that Fontus was the son of Janus and Juturna. The name itself proves that this is a secondary form of Fons modelled on Janus, denouncing the late character of this myth: it was probably conceived because of the proximity of the festivals of Juturna (11 January) and the Agonium of Janus (9 January) as well as for the presence of an altar of Fons near the Janiculum and the closeness of the notions of spring and of beginning.


title: Janus

text: After Romulus and his men kidnapped the Sabine women, and Rome was attacked by the Sabines under king Tatius, Janus caused a volcanic hot spring to erupt, resulting in the would-be attackers being buried alive in the deathly hot, brutal water and ash mixture of the rushing hot volcanic springs that killed, burned, or disfigured many of Tatius's men. This spring is called Lautolae by Varro. Later on, however, the Sabines and Romans agreed on creating a new community together. In honor of this, the doors of a walled roofless structure called 'The Janus' (not a temple) were kept open during war after a symbolic contingent of soldiers had marched through it. The doors were closed in ceremony when peace was concluded.


title: Janus

text: In accord with his fundamental character of being the Beginner, Janus was considered by Romans the first king of Latium, sometimes along with Camese. He would have received hospitably the god Saturn, who, expelled from Heaven by Jupiter, arrived on a ship to the Janiculum. Janus would have also effected the miracle of turning the waters of the spring at the foot of the Viminal from cold to scorching hot to fend off the assault of the Sabines of king Titus Tatius, come to avenge the kidnapping of their daughters by the Romans.


title: Janus

text: His temple named Janus Geminus had to stand open in times of war. It was said to have been built by king Numa Pompilius, who kept it always shut during his reign as there were no wars. After him it was closed very few times, one after the end of the first Punic War, three times under Augustus and once by Nero. It is recorded that emperor Gordianus III opened the Janus Geminus.


title: Janus

text: It is a noteworthy curiosity that the opening of the Janus was perhaps the last act connected to the ancient religion in Rome: Procopius writes that in 536, during the Gothic War, while general Belisarius was under siege in Rome, at night somebody opened the Janus Geminus stealthily, which had stayed closed since the 390 edict of Theodosius I that banned the ancient cults. Janus was faithful to his liminal role also in the marking of this last act.