Iamĭdæ, certain prophets among the Greeks, descended from Iamus, a son of Apollo, who received the gift of prophecy from his father, which remained among his posterity. Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 2.
Janĭcŭlum and Janicularius mons, one of the seven hills at Rome joined to the city by Ancus Martius, and made a kind of citadel, to protect the place against an invasion. This hill [See: [Janus]], which was on the opposite shore of the Tiber, was joined to the city by the bridge Sublicius, the first ever built across the river, and perhaps in Italy. It was less inhabited than the other parts of the city, on account of the grossness of the air, though from its top the eye could have a commanding view of the whole city. It is famous for the burial of king Numa and of the poet Italicus. Porsenna king of Etruria pitched his camp on mount Janiculum, and the senators took refuge there in the civil wars, to avoid the resentment of Octavius. Livy, bk. 1, ch. 33, &c.—Dio Cassius, bk. 47.—Ovid, bk. 1, Fasti, li. 246.—Virgil, [Aeneid], bk. 8, li. 358.—Martial, bk. 4, ltr. 64; bk. 7, ltr. 16.
Ianīra, one of the Nereides.
Ianthe, a girl of Crete, who married Iphis. See: [Iphis]. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 9, li. 714, &c.
Ianthea, one of the Oceanides.——One of the Nereides. Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 30.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 8, li. 47.
Jānus, the most ancient king who reigned in Italy. He was a native of Thessaly, and son of Apollo, according to some. He came to Italy, where he planted a colony and built a small town on the river Tiber, which he called Janiculum. Some authors make him son of Cœlus and Hecate; and others make him a native of Athens. During his reign, Saturn, driven from heaven by his son Jupiter, came to Italy, where Janus received him with much hospitality, and made him his colleague on the throne. Janus is represented with two faces, because he was acquainted with the past and the future; or, according to others, because he was taken for the sun, who opens the day at his rising, and shuts it at his setting. Some statues represented Janus with four heads. He sometimes appeared with a beard, and sometimes without. In religious ceremonies, his name was always invoked the first, because he presides over all gates and avenues, and it is through him only that prayers can reach the immortal gods. From that circumstance he often appears with a key in his right hand, and a rod in his left. Sometimes he holds the number of 300 in one hand, and in the other 65, to show that he presides over the year, of which the first month bears his name. Some suppose that he is the same as the world, or Cœlus; and from that circumstance they call him Eanus, ab eundo, because of the revolution of the heavens. He was called by different names, such as Consivius, a conserendo, because he presided over generation; Quirinus or Martialis, because he presided over war. He is also called Patuleius and Clausius, because the gates of his temples were open during the time of war, and shut in time of peace. He was chiefly worshipped among the Romans, where he had many temples, some erected to Janus Bifrons, others to Janus Quadrifrons. The temples of Quadrifrons were built with four equal sides, with a door and three windows on each side. The four doors were the emblems of the four seasons of the year, and the three windows in each of the sides the three months in each season, and, all together, the 12 months of the year. Janus was generally represented in statues as a young man. After death Janus was ranked among the gods, for his popularity and the civilization which he had introduced among the wild inhabitants of Italy. His temple, which was always open in times of war, was shut only three times during above 700 years, under Numa, 234 B.C., and under Augustus; and during that long period of time, the Romans were continually employed in war. Ovid, Fasti, bk. 1, li. 65, &c.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 7, li. 607.—Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 1.—Macrobius, Saturnalia, bk. 1.——A street at Rome near the temple of Janus. It was generally frequented by usurers and money-brokers, and booksellers also kept their shops there. Horace, bk. 1, ltr. 1.
Japetĭdes, a musician at the nuptials of Perseus and Andromeda. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 111.
Japĕtus, a son of Cœlus or Titan by Terra, who married Asia, or, according to others, Clymene, by whom he had Atlas, Menœtius, Prometheus, and Epimetheus. The Greeks looked upon him as the father of all mankind, and therefore from his antiquity old men were frequently called Japeti. His sons received the patronymic of Iapetionides. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 4, li. 631.—Hesiod, Theogony, lis. 136 & 508.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 1.
Iāpis, an Ætolian, who founded a city upon the banks of the Timavus. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, li. 475.——A Trojan, favourite of Apollo, from whom he received the knowledge of the power of medicinal herbs. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 12, li. 391.
Iapy̆dia, a district of Illyricum, now Carniola. Livy, bk. 43, ch. 5.—Tibullus, bk. 4, li. 109.—Cicero, Cornelius Balbus, ch. 14.