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According to Livy and another Roman writer, Romulus and others believed that they could negotiate with the Pantheon. By worshipping the two-faced god, they were negotiating with some of the forces that controlled their lives. Janus was one of the Roman gods of time, and he personified the dual nature of time. Like him, time, as experienced by humans, was at once forward-looking and backward-looking. We see here how a myth was used to interpret reality and even to structure it.
Myths often encapsulated some rudimentary philosophy for ancient peoples, and Janus's stories are a good example of this. This god helped Romans survive in a hostile world. He also helped to explain the world. Most importantly, he helped explain the endless process of beginnings and endings and the cycles of peace, war, life, death, etc., that were a condition of the cosmos. Janus was often shown as holding the key and guarding the gates of heaven. This symbolized that those who comprehended this mysterious figure's duality could fully comprehend the universe .<ref>Warrior, p. 201</ref>.
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