Quadrifrons

A surname of Janus. It is said that after the conquest of the Faliscans an image of Janus was found with four foreheads. Hence afterwards a temple of Janus quadrifrons was built in the Forum Transitorium, which had four gates. The fact of the god being represented with four heads is considered by the ancients to be an indication of his being the divinity presiding over the year with its four seasons.

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References

Sources

  • Augustine. City of God vii, 4.
  • Isodorus. Origines viii, 11.
  • Servius on Virgil's Aeneid vii, 607.
  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.

This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.