Editing Janus (section)

== Legacy ==
[[File:FR Carskie Siolo, Galeria Camerona, 2013.08.10, fot. I. Nowicka (14) corr.jpg|thumb|The bust of Ianus Bifrons at [[Charles Cameron (architect)|Cameron's Gallery]], [[Tsarskoye Selo]]; fot. [[Ivonna Nowicka]]]]
In the Middle Ages, Janus was taken as the symbol of [[Genoa]], whose Medieval Latin name was ''Ianua'', as well as of other European communes.<ref>T. O. De Negri ''Storia di Genova'' Firenze 2003 p. 21-22.</ref> The ''comune'' of [[:it:Selvazzano Dentro|Selvazzano di Dentro]] near [[Padua]] has a grove and an altar of Janus depicted on its standard, but their existence is unproved.

In [[demonology]], Janus is corrupted into [[Bifrons (demon)|Bifrons]], and is described by grimoires such as ''[[The Lesser Key of Solomon]]'' as a demonic earl in charge of moving bodies into graves and lighting candles over them, possibly suggesting the retention of Janus' role as a deity of endings and guardian of passages.

In Act I Scene 1 of Shakespeare's ''[[Merchant of Venice]]'', Salarino refers to the two-headed Janus while failing to find the reason of Antonio's melancholy.<ref>{{cite book |title=Black Political Thought From David Walker to the Present |date=2019 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=60}}</ref> In Act I Scene 2 of Shakespeare's ''[[Othello]]'', Iago invokes the name of Janus after the failure of his plot against the titular character.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bhattacharyya |first1=Jibbesh |title=William Shakespeare's Othello |date=2006 |publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Distributors |page=37}}</ref>

In her 1921 book ''The Witch-Cult in Western Europe'', folklorist [[Margaret Murray]] claimed that evidence found in records of the [[early modern witch trials]] showed the witches' god, usually identified in the records as [[the Devil]], was in fact often a male priest dressed in a double mask representing Janus. Murray traced the presence of a man dressed with a mask on the back of his head at some witch meetings to confessions of accused witches in the [[Pyrenees]] region, and one statement in particular that the leader of the witches appeared "''comme le dieu Janus''" ("as the god Janus"). Via the etymology given by James Frazier, Murray further connected the figure on Janus or Dianus in the witch-cult with the more well known goddess of witchcraft, [[Diana (mythology)|Diana]].<ref name=murray1921>Murray, Margaret. 1921. [https://archive.org/details/witchcultinweste00murr ''The Witch-Cult in Western Europe'']</ref> Both Murray's contemporaries and modern scholars have argued that Murray's hypothesis and the connections she drew between Janus and Diana, and linking the early modern witch trials with ancient pagan beliefs, are dubious.<ref>{{cite news |title=Margaret Murray: Who Believed Her and Why? |last=Simpson |first=Jacqueline |year=1994 |journal=Folklore |volume=105 |pages=89–96 |jstor=1260633 }}</ref>

[[Janus Films]], a film distribution company founded in 1956, takes its name from the god and features a two-faced Janus as its logo.<ref>{{cite web |title=Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films |url=https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/305-essential-art-house-50-years-of-janus-films |publisher=[[The Criterion Collection]]}}</ref>

The [[Janus Society]] was an early [[homophile movement|homophile]] organization founded in 1962 and based in [[Philadelphia]]. It is notable as the publisher of ''[[Drum (American magazine)|DRUM]]'' magazine, one of the earliest gay-interest publications in the United States and most widely circulated in the 1960s,<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender history in America|date=2004|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons/Thomson/Gale|others=Stein, Marc.|isbn=0684312611|location=New York, NY|oclc=52819577}}</ref> and for its role in organizing many of the nation's [[List of LGBT actions in the United States prior to the Stonewall riots|earliest gay rights demonstrations]].<ref>Loughery, John (1998). ''The Other Side of Silence – Men's Lives and Gay Identities: A Twentieth-Century History''. New York, Henry Holt and Company. {{ISBN|0-8050-3896-5}}, p. 270</ref> The organization focused on a policy of militant respectability, a strategy demanding respect by showing the public gay individuals conforming to hetero-normative standards of dress at protests.<ref name=":0" />

The [[Society of Janus]] is the second [[BDSM]] organization founded in the United States (after [[The Eulenspiegel Society]]<ref name="Weiss2011">{{cite book|author=Margot Weiss|title=Techniques of Pleasure: BDSM and the Circuits of Sexuality|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dR7bTc1aXbcC&pg=PA8|date=20 December 2011|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223-5159-7|page=8}}</ref>), and is a San Francisco, California based BDSM education and support group. It was founded in August 1974 by the late [[Cynthia Slater]] and Larry Olsen. According to the Leather Hall of Fame biography of Slater, she said of the Society of Janus:<ref name="LHF">{{Cite web |title=Cynthia Slater - Leather Hall of Fame |url=https://leatherhalloffame.com/inductees-list/21-cynthia-slater |access-date=2022-08-25 |website=leatherhalloffame.com}}</ref><blockquote>There were three basic reasons why we chose Janus. First of all, Janus has two faces, which we interpreted as the duality of [[sadomasochism|SM]] (one's dominant and submissive sides). Second, he's the Roman god of portals, and more importantly, of beginnings and endings. To us, it represents the beginning of one's acceptance of self, the beginning of freedom from guilt, and the eventual ending of self-loathing and fear over one's SM desires. And third, Janus is the Roman god of war—the war we fight against stereotypes commonly held against us.</blockquote>In the 1987 [[Thriller (genre)|thriller]] novel ''[[The Janus Man]]'' by British novelist [[Raymond Harold Sawkins]], Janus is used as a metaphor for a Soviet agent infiltrated into British Secret Intelligence Service – "The Janus Man who faces both East and West".

In the 1995 spy film ''[[GoldenEye]]'' in the James Bond film series, the main antagonist Alec Trevelyan calls himself the code name "Janus" after he betrays Bond and subsequently MI6 after learning he is a Lienz Cossack. Bond, portrayed by [[Pierce Brosnan]], goes on to state, "Hence, Janus. The two-faced Roman god come to life", after learning of Trevelyan's betrayal.

The [[University of Maryland]]'s undergraduate history journal, created in 2000, is named ''Janus''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.janus.umd.edu/ |title=Janus: the University of Maryland Undergraduate History Journal |publisher=Janus.umd.edu |date=7 March 2011 |access-date=16 December 2019 |archive-date=18 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191218111336/http://www.janus.umd.edu/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Cats with the congenital disorder [[diprosopus]], which causes the face to be partly or completely duplicated on the head, are known as [[Diprosopus#Animals|Janus cats]].<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/sep/30/two-faced-cat-guinness-world-record | work=The Guardian | first=Cherry | last=Wilson | title=Two-faced cat is a record breaker | date=30 September 2011}}</ref>

In the 1995 game, [[Chrono Trigger]], Janus is the young prince of Zeal Kingdom and later becomes the Demon King Magus.

In 2020, the character Deceit from the series ''[[Sanders Sides]]'', created by [[Thomas Sanders (entertainer)|Thomas Sanders]], revealed his name to be Janus in the episode "Putting Others First".

In [[Cassandra Clare]]'s ''[[The Shadowhunter Chronicles]]'', the counterpart of Jace Herondale from an alternate dimension called Thule chooses the name "Janus" for himself after the Roman god.

[[Janus particles]] are engineered micro- or nano-scopic particles possessing two distinct faces which have distinct physical or chemical properties.

''Janus'' is the name of a [[Janus (time-reversible computing programming language)|time-reversible programming language]]. It is also the name of a [[Janus (concurrent constraint programming language)|concurrent constraint programming language]].

[[List of South Park characters|William Janus]] is a minor character in the American sitcom ''[[South Park]]'' who suffers from [[dissociative identity disorder]]; his surname is derived from the Roman god.<ref>{{Cite web |title=South Park: "City Sushi" |url=https://www.avclub.com/south-park-city-sushi-1798168437 |access-date=2024-07-29 |website=AV Club |language=en-US}}</ref>