The Breaking Point: A Body Farm Novel

In memory of Clyde Snow, Walter Birkby, and
Ted Rathbun: good friends, valued colleagues,
superb teachers, and crusaders for justice.

               
The Two Faces of Richard Janus

               
And thus does Fortune’s wheel turn treacherously
And out of happiness bring men to sorrow.

—Geoffrey Chaucer,
The Canterbury Tales

               
One of ancient Rome’s most powerful and mysterious deities, Janus—the god of two faces—was guardian of gateways and transitions. The two faces signified not hypocrisy, as people often assume, but dual vision: One face turned toward the past, the other toward the future, Janus stood sentinel on the threshold of birth, as well as the threshold between death and the afterlife. In one hand he held a key; in the other, a cudgel.

—Sofia Paxton,
Ancient Teachings, Modern Wisdom