The Double-Faced Statue, or How Virgilio Conjured Janus
“Now by two-headed Janus!
Nature hath formed strange fellows in her time!”
Shakespeare.
“There were in Rome many temples of Janus, some unto him as bifrons, or double-faced. Caylus has published pictures of Greek vases on which are seen two heads thus united, the one of an elderly man, the other of a young woman.”
—Dizionario Mitologico.
There was once in Florence, in the Tower della Zeccha, a statue of great antiquity, and it had only one body, or bust, but two heads; and one of these was of a man and the other of a woman, a thing marvellous to behold.
And Virgil, seeing this when it was first found in digging amid old ruins, had it placed upright and said:
“Behold two beings who form but a single person! I will conjure the image; it shall be a charm to do good; it shall teach a lesson to all.”
Thus he conjured:
“Statua da due faccie
Due, e un corpo solo,
Due faccie ed avete
Un sol cervello. Siete
Due esseri l’ uno per altro,
Dovete essere marito e moglie,
Dovete peccare con un sol pensiero.
“Avete bene quattro occhi
Ma una sol vista,
Come tutti i mariti,
E moglie dorebbere essere,
E dovete fare la buona fortuna
Di tutti gli inamorati.”
“Statue gifted with two faces,
Two and yet a single body!
Two and but one brain—then art thou
Two intended for each other—
Two who should be wife and husband,
Acting by the same reflection.
“Unto you four eyes are given,
And but a single sight—ye are then
What indeed all wives and husbands
Ought to be if they’d be happy;
Therefore shalt thou bring good fortune
Unto all devoted lovers!”
Then Virgil touched the statue with his rod, and it replied:
“Tutti quelli che mi pregherano.
Di cuore sincera, amanti o sposi,
Tutti quelli saranno felice!”
“All of those who’ll come here to adore me,
Be they lovers, be they married couples,
I will ever make them truly happy.”
The conception of a head with two faces, one male and the other female, is still very common in Italy. In the cloister of Santa Maria Novella in Florence the portraits of a husband and wife are thus united on a marble monumental tablet. And in Baveno, among the many graffiti or sketches and scrawls made by children on the walls on or near the church, there is one which is evidently traditional, representing Janus. This double-headed deity was continued in the Baphomet of the Knights Templars.
In the older legends are two tales declaring that Virgil made and enchanted two statues. This appears to be a variation of the story of Janus.