Spes (Latin for "Hope") was worshipped as a goddess in ancient Rome religion. Numerous temples to Spes are known, and inscriptions indicate that she received private devotion as well as state cult.[J. Rufus Fears, "The Cult of Virtues and Roman Imperial Ideology," Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.17.2 (1981), p. 837.]
Republican Hope
During the
Roman Republic, a temple to "ancient Hope" (Spes vetus) was supposed to have been located near the Praenestine Gate.
[Frontinus, De aquaeductu 1.19.] It was associated with events that occurred in the 5th century BC,
[Livy 2.51.2; Dionysius of Halicarnassus 9.24.4.] but its existence as anything except perhaps a private shrine has been doubted.
[Fears, "The Cult of Virtues," p. 848.]
A well-documented Temple of Spes was built by Aulus Atilius Calatinus[Cicero, De Legibus 2.28.] along with Fides, as the result of vows (votum]]) made to these goddesses during the First Punic War.[Fears, "The Cult of Virtues," p. 835.] This was built at the vegetable market (Forum Olitorium)
At Capua in 110 BC, a temple was built to the triad of Spes, Fides, and Fortuna.[ Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae 3770.]
Imperial Hope
Spes was one of the divine personifications in the Imperial cult of the Virtues. Spes Augusta was Hope associated with the capacity of the
Roman emperor as
Augustus to ensure blessed conditions.
[J. Rufus Fears, "The Theology of Victory at Rome: Approaches and Problem," Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.17.2 (1981), pp. 812–814.]
Like Salus ("Salvation, Security"), Ops ("Abundance, Prosperity"), and Victoria ("Victory"), Spes was a power that had to come from the gods, in contrast to divine powers that resided within the individual such as Mens ("Intelligence"), Virtus ("Virtue"), and Fides ("Faith, Fidelity, Trustworthiness").[Fears, "The Theology of Victory at Rome," p. 744.]
Greek Elpis
The Greek counterpart of Spes was Elpis, who by contrast had no formal cult in Greece. The primary
Greek mythology in which Elpis plays a role is the story of
Pandora. The Greeks had ambivalent or even negative feelings about "hope", with
Euripides describing it in his
Suppliants as "delusive" and stating "it has embroiled many a State",
[Euripedes, Suppliants, l. 479.] and the concept was unimportant in the philosophical systems of the
Stoicism and
Epicureanism. Except with regard to the core value of Stoicism which is to control things within your power, hope is outside the power of the present.
See also
-
Hope, the concept
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Piety (Pietas), Luck (Fortuna), Faithfulness (Fides) as Roman goddesses
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading
-
Clark, Mark Edward. "Spes in the Early Imperial Cult: 'The Hope of Augustus'." Numen 30.1 (1983) 80–105.
