| Ops | |
|---|---|
Goddess of Agriculture, Abundance, and the Earth | |
 | |
| Other names | Opes, Opis |
| Symbol | Wheat, corn,cornucopia |
| Gender | Female |
| Temple | Temple of Ops |
| Festivals | Opiconsivia, Opalia |
| Consort | Saturn |
| Equivalents | |
| Greek | Rhea |
Inancient Roman religion,Ops, (Latin: "Plenty") also spelledOpes orOpis, was afertility andearth goddess of abundance, prosperity, and agriculture, and the consort ofSaturn. AsOps Consiva, she presided over the reserved portion of the harvest alongsideConsus, the god of stored grain.[1] She was celebrated during two yearly festivals:Opiconsivia in August and Opalia in December.
Ops was frequently compared to goddesses likeDemeter,Cybele,Ceres, andTerra, who were similarly associated with the earth and agriculture. She was conflated with theGreekRhea, mother of the first generationOlympians and consort ofCronus, the Greek equivalent of Saturn.
The Latin wordops means "riches, goods, abundance, gifts, munificence, plenty." The word is also related toopus, which means "work," particularly in the sense of "working the earth, ploughing, sowing."Ops is also related to theSanskrit wordápnas ("goods, property").[2]
The origins of Ops as a goddess are unclear. InDe Lingua Latina,Varro claims that Ops was a deity ofSabine origin worshipped byTitus Tatius— a stance later repeated byDionysus of Halicarnassus and Augustine. She may have been associated with the Sabines due to her being an agricultural goddess, and therefore associated with the countryside; the Sabines were similarly associated withnon-urban environments by those living in Rome.[3]: 43 However, modern scholarship has suggested more convoluted origins, with Ops likely being a combination ofEtruscan,Italic, Sabinic,Hellenic, and Roman elements.[3]: 38
Ops' name and function was discussed inVarro'sDeLingua Latina, which identified her as the wife ofSaturn,[4][5] anotheragricultural god.[a] He additionally conflated her withIsis andTerra, and compared her functions to those ofCeres.[6] Varro claimed that, as Saturn embodied the sky, Ops embodied the earth, and was therefore referred to as "mother." Similar understandings of Ops' function were attested to byFestus andVerris Flaccus, who identified her as both an agricultural goddess and counterpart of Saturn. Varro additionally connected the name Ops directly withopus: "work," specifically the working of the earth.[7]Macrobius, writing in the5th century, similarly identified her with the work required to grow crops (again usingopus), and claimed that men prayed to the goddess before beginning to work the earth in order honor her as "mother of mortals."[8]
She was additionally a goddess of abundance as the creator of economies linked to farming and agriculture at large, particularlycereals. As the guarantor of abundant harvest and food security, Ops may have been worshipped as a protector of Rome— a claim put forth by Macrobius.[3]: 73 She may have additionally been abstractly connected to the production or procurement of wealth. The wordops is etymologically related to the wordsopulenti ("opulence") andopima ("rich, fertile"), and she was bestowed with the epithetOps Consiva ("she who sows").[9][10][11] Ops Consiva was a goddess associated with the reserved portion (condere) of the harvest, and was associated closely withConsus, god of storedgrain and consilium.[1][12]
After theRoman Republic's conquest ofGreece and the influence of Hellenic mythology and culture on Roman culture, Ops became increasingly conflated with the GreekRhea: wife ofCronus and mother of the first generationOlympians.[3]: 220–222 Greek myths were sometimes taken in their entirety and reworked with the gods' Roman counterparts. For example, when they translated the story of Rhea hiding her children from Cronus,Livius Andronicus andEnnius rendered the story faithfully and simply replaced "Rhea" with "Ops."[13][3]: 224 Similarly,Ovid described Ops as both the wife and sister of Saturn; Rhea and Cronus were full-blooded siblings as the children ofUranus andGaia.[5] InPlautus' comedic playPersa, Ops is referred to as the mother of Jupiter,[14] and in hisCistellaria,Juno is referred to as the daughter of Jupiter and the granddaughter of Ops.[15] In these accounts, Ops' functions outside being the wife of Saturn and the mother of multiple gods are not mentioned.
Ops Consiva was celebrated during theOpiconsivia, a festival held in and around theRegia on August 25, possibly marking the end of the harvest. The Opalia, a second festival celebrating the goddess on December 19, was held in theForum, and occurred immediately after or duringSaturnalia.[1][4] The exact significance and reasoning behind the Opalia are unclear, but it was possibly held to mark the end of the year or celebrate the completion of work and the promise of future harvests.[3]: 125 It is unknown whether the goddess was worshipped simply as "Ops" or as "Ops Consiva" during the December festival.[3]: 103–104 She may have additionally been celebrated as Ops Consiva during the festival celebrating Consus, theConsualia, held on December 15.
Ops received a cultuic revival under the reign ofAugustus. TheFasti Vallenses,FastiAmiternini, andFasti Antiates indicate that Augustus established altars in theVicus Jugarius dedicated toCeres Mater andOpsAugusta in 7 AD, and designated August 10th as a holiday celebrating the two goddesses.[3]: 286 His decision was likely influenced by a severefamine reportedly occurring at the time.[16]
Philochorus claimed thatCecrops, king ofAttica, was the first to build a temple to Saturn and Ops where they were worshipped as Jupiter and Earth. When crops had been harvested, the head of the household would eat with the slaves who worked the land— paying honor to those responsible for the harvest was considered pleasing to the gods. Macrobius claims that these celebrations were later adapted into the Roman festival ofSaturnalia.[8]
In Rome, Ops Consiva had a poorly documentedcult and asacrarium in theRegia, a temple only thepontifex maximus and theVestal Virgins could enter; it is not clear whether this restriction was only imposed during her festivals.[10] Two items were mentioned byFestus as being held in the goddess' sacrarium: a ritual knife (secespita) and abronze vase used in sacrifices (praefericulum).[3]: 61
Ops additionally had atemple on theCapitol near theTemple of Fides and theTemple of Jupiter,[1] but what little evidence there is attesting to its existence is scant and fragmentary, and mostly dated to theRepublican Era. It was mentioned by bothPliny andLivy; using their writings, the temple'sterminus ante quem is estimated 186 BC, and could have been founded byLucius Caecilius Metellus orAulus Atilius Calatinus, who dedicated temples toFides andSpes on the Capitol around 250 BC.Cicero wrote about how, in 50 BC,Caesar deposited a portion of the Roman treasury in the temple of Ops, which was later retrieved byMark Antony.[17] This story was also covered byAppian.[18] Additionally,Julius Obsequens recorded a supernatural occurrence in 44 BC, when the temple doors shut on their own, and in 17 BC, theAugustanLudi Saeculares were recorded partially taking place at the temple.[10] Little else is known about the temple and the methods of worship associated with it, but its construction could have marked a change in the Romans' perception of the deity; she could have taken on a more political role and become a deity responsible for the protection of Rome, similar to Jupiter and Fides.[3]: 159–160 However, the episode concerning Caesar and the treasury indicate that she was likely still closely associated with abundance at the time.[10]
Coins and statues of Ops typically depict her sitting down, and she usually holds ascepter, sheath of wheat,corn spray, or acornucopia.
She is remembered inDe Mulieribus Claris, a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by theFlorentine authorGiovanni Boccaccio, composed in 1361–1362. It is notable as the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in Western literature.[19]
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