#calends

Every year we celebrate the ides of march, yet never the calends of march

The first of the month in the Roman calendar should be the first in our hearts

14 March 2024

March 15 is known as the Ides of March. 

But why do we need to “beware” of them? What’s so inauspicious about this otherwise normal day? Why has this humdrum mid-month point become a harbinger of ill fortune?

Where did the phrase Ides of March come from?

First, let’s talk calendars — specifically, the ancient Roman calendar.

Unlike today, the ancient Romans didn’t simply number their calendar days in order from the first of the month to the last.

Instead, they counted backward in relation to three days: the calends, nones, and ides.

The calends (or kalends; from the Latin word kalendae) was the first of the month.

Calends, source of the word calendar, was the time for settling debts.

The nones (from the Latin word nōnae) was the ninth day before the ides.

This day was equivalent to the seventh day of March, May, July, October, and the fifth day of the other months.

Originally, the nones corresponded to the first quarter of the moon.

Early Romans used a lunar calendar, so they relied on the phases of the moon to determine the beginning of a new month or a new year.

The ides (from the Latin word īdūs) was the fifteenth day of March, May, July, October, and the thirteenth day of the other months.

The ides originally corresponded to the full moon, storied for its own omens.

At the time, March 15 was also associated with various religious observances and celebrations.

So, the Roman day of the month was reckoned by counting the days (including the starting and ending days) before the calends, nones, and ides.

March 2 was the Latin equivalent of “six days before the nones of March.”

March 13 was the equivalent of “three days before the ides of March.”

March 27 was the equivalent of “six days before the calends of April.”

How did the ides of March become superstitious?

The Roman general and statesmen Julius Caesar became a dictator after causing a civil war.

On March 15 in 44 BCE, Caesar was assassinated by conspiring members of the Roman senate, notably including Marcus Brutus.

His rule, and murder, effectively ended the Roman republic — and changed the course of history.

Caesar’s assassination would eventually lead to the founding of the Roman Empire by Caesar’s nephew Octavian, better known as Emperor Caesar Augustus.

William Shakespeare dramatized Caesar’s assassination and its aftermath in the eponymous tragedy Julius Caesar (dated around 1599).

Early in the play, a soothsayer warns Caesar to “Beware the Ides of March.”

Later, on the fateful day, Caesar is stabbed (famously 23 times).

Shakespeare has the dying dictator say, in Latin, as he recognizes his one-time friend Brutus among the assassins:

“Et tu, Brute?” (“You, too, Brutus?”).

Janus is a Roman God, the Gods’ God, divom deus. The lord of doors, transitions, beginnings. When His temple gate was open, it signaled that the Romans were to war. All of the rituals in honor of the Gods honored Janus first. He is the God of the days of the year, the doorkeeper of Heaven and Hell, and who looks upon all the corners of the world. He can have two faces or four. His primary symbol is the door, but he carries a key and a staff. He is a keybearer, and a guide. Like Hecate, Janus is also a God of childbirth, of generation, and even called the Good Creator.

His most common offerings are wine and incense along with cakes, called strues. For the private cult of Romans, Janus receives the first offering, before all others. Burchett believes that His placement at the forefront of the Gods invoked in ritual indicates that Janus is the God who serves as a passageway to the rest of Them. Ovid mentions a cake Ianual, and Cato mentions one called strues, which may be the same thing. Ovid only mentions it was of meal and salt, and Paulus-Festus says strues is strips of bread laid crosswise. Perhaps a good replacement would be hot cross buns, or a braided bread loaf, as we know little enough about the original recipes.

On the first day of the year, sweetmeats were served to encourage sweetness in the year ahead. (Yeah… I’m not eating sweetmeats, which are, historically, the thymus or pancreas of an animal.) He is Father of the Morning, and yet may have had purview over Dusk as well. He could also oversee harbors and waterways.

Martial describes him in a way that makes him the beginning of time, of the universe and the first receiver of prayers. He could even be said to be the Chaos at the beginning of time. Surviving sources also mention twelve altars to Him, but few have been uncovered.

Needless to say, Hecate and Janus share many of these traits. They both carry keys, are associated with doors and childbirth. Though He is absent Her underworldly character, they are also both associated with the road and travel. Though Janus appears to be native to the Romans, and Hekate is an adoptee from the East, the overlap is fascinating to me.

But it is Proclus who gives us their clearest connection in one of his hymns. There, we see Hekate and Janus as Creator Gods, and treats Janus as a form of Zeus.

Hail, many-named Mother of the Gods, whose children are fair Hail, mighty Hekate of the Threshold And hail to you also Forefather Janus, Imperishable Zeus Hail to you Zeus most high. Shape the course of my life with luminous Light And make it laden with good things, Drive sickness and evil from my limbs. And when my soul rages about worldly things, Deliver me purified by your soul-stirring rituals. Yes, give me your hand I pray And reveal to me the pathways of divine guidance that I long for, Then shall I gaze upon that precious Light Whence I can flee the evil of our dark origin. Yes, give me your hand I pray, And when I am weary bring me to the haven of piety with your winds. Hail, many-named Mother of the Gods, whose children are fair Hail, mighty Hekate of the Threshold And hail to you also Forefather Janus, Imperishable Zeus, Hail to you Zeus most high. -Proclus Diadochus (5th c. CE), Hymn VI: To Hekate and Janus, trans. Vogt, as printed in Ronan.

Ronan rightly points out that Proclus’ hymn is Chaldean in philosophy, and Janus stands as a Demiurge known in the Oracles as Hadad. This accounts for the ascetic, world-denying tone of the prayer, for the Chaldean Oracles emphasize utilizing their practices to ascend mortality and rejoin the Divine Ultimate Reality that Had, Hadad and Hekate represent.

By the 4th c. CE, Arnobius is speaking of Janus as Hekate’s son, by Ouranos, which can reasonably be said to refer to the Chaldean triad again, though we know of no other genealogy that defines their relationship as such.

When I sat down to research this, I had in mind writing a ritual to perform on New Year’s Day. It would be based on the Roman celebrations, but lo and behold, that’s basically the same as what we do now. The Romans didn’t really celebrate Janus on January 1st, indeed, the original opening of the year was in March with the Kalends, until the Julian Calendar was created. Often a Consul was taking office, and so there would be some oath-taking ritual for him, but otherwise, the New Year was welcomed mostly with rich food and drinking. Revelry in other words, much like we do today. They did give small offerings to Janus, but nothing formal with processions or temples. Gifts were given to friends and neighbors to honor the day, and they made sure to do some work that day, because sloth was considered a bad omen.

For myself, I have always simply read Proclus’ Hymn, and offered a brief acknowledgement of Hekate and Janus before beginning my simple celebration and cooking the foods that are traditional in my area. And, it appears that for now, I will be continuing that tradition. I’m really looking forward to my hoppin’ john, pork, and cornbread, not to mention the swiss roll I’m going to have to share. Not every occasion calls for a complicated ritual.

Happy New Years! May the year to come shower you with health, happiness, and peace!

  Sources:

http://www.livius.org/articles/religion/janus/? http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/imperialfora/nerva/geminus.html

Burchett, Bessie Rebecca. Janus in Roman Life and Cult, George Banta, 1912. Dunn, Patrick. The Practical Art of Divine Magic: Contemporary and Ancient Techniques of Theurgy, Llewellyn, 2015. Gagarin, Michael and Elaine Fantham. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome vol.1, Oxford, 2010. Harland, Philip A. Travel and Religion in Antiquity, Wilfrid Laurier, 2011. Johnston, Sarah Iles. Hekate Soteira, Scholars, 1990. Ronan, Stephen. The Goddess Hekate, Chthonios, 1992.

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