Spes

Spes (Latin for "Hope") was worshipped as a goddess in ancient Roman 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 Republic, a temple to "ancient Hope" () 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 CalatinusCicero, De legibus 2.28. along with Fides, as the result of vows () made to these goddesses during the First Punic War.Fears, "The Cult of Virtues," p. 835. This was built at the vegetable market () just outside the Carmental Gate. It was twice burnt down and restored, first in 213 BC and then again in AD 7.

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 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 myth 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 Stoics and Epicureans. 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 Piety (), Luck (), Faithfulness () as Roman goddesses

References Citations

Bibliography

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