Ops and ConsusOps is a very rarely depicted deity. Because my coin is too poorly preserved, I have chosen a coin from
Wildwinds here.
1st coin:Antoninus Pius, 138-161
AE -
Sestertius, 22.76 g, 33 mm
Obv.: ANTONINVS
AVG PI - VS P P TR P
COS III Laureate
head r.
Rev.: OPI -
AVG in ex. S C
Ops enthroned l., left foot on footstool, holding long
sceptre with right hand across right
shoulder and pulls the fold of her robe upwards from the shoulder with the left hand; left
elbow bent and resting on the throne.
Ref.:
RIC 612, pl.V, 105; C. 569; BMCR 1258;
Sear 4197
rare, VF, brown
patinaPedigree: ex Roma
Numismatics Auction XII, Sept. 2016.
Finding out the true character of
Ops turned out to be unexpectedly difficult. The reason was that her original meaning is obscured and that she was later connected to the Greek Rhea. I have therefore omitted all mythological references to Rhea.
Iconography:Here
Ops is correctly depicted seated, as befits a
chthonic deity.
Etymology:The Latin
ops, opis (f.) is related to the Old Indian "
apnas" = yield, belongings, and the Greek "
ομπνη" = crops. It means:
in the singular: 1. power, strength, fortune, 2.
help, assistance, and in the plural: 1. means, fortune, wealth, 2. troop power, armed forces
Mythology:Ops, with full name
Ops Mater (Varro), is an ancient Roman deity of the oldest religious order. Her cult is said to have been introduced into
Rome under
Titus Tatius, the co-king of
Romulus, and to be of Sabinic origin. She is a personification of the rich
abundance of harvest blessings and is therefore cultically connected with the harvest god Consus.
This connection is, however, obscured by the fact that the ancient authors already transferred the Greek ideas of
Kronos and Rhea to
Ops and associated her with
Saturnus. This was supported by the idea that the temple of
Saturn on the
Forum was dedicated to both deities. But today the
inscription Opi(s) et Saturni has turned out to be a forgery.
The affiliation of
Ops and Consus is proven by the fact that
Consiva, the epithet of
Ops, refers to her as Consus' comrade. Even if this epiclesis does not come directly from Consus, it is derived from the Latin
condere (= to store, to save). Thus it is clear that
Ops does not belong to the seed god
Saturnus, but to the harvest god Consus. This is also proven by the position of her two festivals in the old Roman calendar. While the feasts of Consus fall on 21 August, the end of the harvest, and 15 December, the end of threshing, they are followed by the feasts of
Ops, on 25 August Opiconsivia and on 19 December Opalia, both only 4 days apart.
A third feast day on 10 August was added to the festival calendar in 7 AD to commemorate the foundation of altars to
Ceres mater and
Ops augusta. The epithet
augusta is only found on
weight inscriptions (see below), on an
inscription from Theveste in
Numidia and on coins of
Antoninus Pius.
Coins of
Pertinax depict her as a seated woman with ears of
corn in her hand and bear the
legend Opi divin(ae), probably as a designation of the harvest wealth sent by the gods, if it is understood as "divine
help". These very coins have given rise to a number of forged writings with the
consecration Opi divinae (Roscher).
2nd coin:Pertinax, 193 AD.
AE -
Sestertius, 28.21g
Obv.:
IMP CAES P HELV -
PERTINAX AVG Laureate
head r.
Rev.:
OPI DIVIN - TR P
COS II in left and right
field S - C Ops enthroned l., holding ears of grain in her right hand and supporting
himself on the throne with
his left hand.
Ref.:
RIC 20;
Cohen 34;
BMC 42;
Sear 6054
Extremely
rarePedigree:ex Numismatica Ars Classica,
Auction 51, Lot 341, March 2009.
In the Roman provinces we know of only two places with the cult of
Ops. Theveste, already mentioned, and Lambaesis, also in
Numidia. Here, however,
Ops Regina, just like
Saturnus Dominus, is only the Latin name for a native Punic deity.
The unification of
Saturnus and
Ops into a pair of gods, which is not founded in Roman religion but is common in literature, dates only from the time when the Roman cult experienced a
complete Hellenisation, from the beginning of the 2nd Punic War. After
Saturnus had been identified with
Kronos, it was obvious to equate Rhea with
Ops. The December festivals of
Saturnus and
Ops were close to each other and Rhea was also an earth goddess.
The phrase
Ops terra est (
Ops is the earth) is found several times and means that
Ops is called
Terra because all human works are produced by the earth. Therefore
Saturnus and
Ops were regarded as principes dei, as heaven and earth, and
Ops was also equated with other earth goddesses, especially with Bona Dea. The equation with Rhea, however, is as old as Roman literature.
Other interpretations, such as that she, as earth, belonged to the deities of the newborn, have nothing to do with actual religious practice. Also, that
Ops was the actual
patron goddess of
Rome, whose name was kept secret, is only a learned construction based on the mystery surrounding the worship of
Ops in the Sacrarium of the Regia.
ConsusEtymologically, Consus
comes from Latin.
condere (= to hide, and, as in
German, to conceal). He is therefore not a god of sowing, but a god who hides the harvested crops in the barns.
Consus was an ancient
Italian chthonic earth and seed god whose
altar lay underground in
Rome's
Circus maximus and was only uncovered on
his main festivals celebrated by shepherds and peasants, the Consualia, on 20 Aug (after the harvest) and 15
Dec (after the end of threshing!). On the former feast, the robbery of the
Sabine women is said to have taken place (Livius); on the latter, the draught
animals, horses and
mules, also celebrated with the people. Their heads were wreathed and the pontifices held races in the
circus, especially of
mules. This is why Roman authors mistakenly equated Consus with the Greek
horse god Poseidon. This is also the case with Livius, who speaks of a festival of Neptune in connection with the robbery of the
Sabine women. He was even sometimes called
Neptunus Equestris (Greek
Poseidon Hippios).
According to the
legend, Consus was the god who gave
Romulus the advice to rob the
Sabine women. Therefore he was considered the god of secret plots. But this is only one of the many misinterpretations. The Roman authors have mistakenly combined the name Consus with the Latin
consilium = advice (so Servius).
The temples of Ops There must have been at least 3 temples of
ops in
Rome:
(1) In the older times the only place of worship of the
Ops was the Sacrarium of the Regia. In ancient
Rome the Regia was a building on the east
side of the
Forum Romanum next to the temple of
Vesta. It originally belonged to the property of the kings, then around 509 BC, when the monarchy was abolished, it became the seat of the
Rex sacrorum, who
had taken over the sacral functions of the
king, and then of the
Pontifex Maximus. It was thus the site of the
Collegium, the assembly of the pontifices.
According to tradition, the Regia was built under
Numa Pompilius, the legendary second
king of
Rome. Today's remains come from a restoration in 36 BC. At that time, the Regia was a five-sided house. It burned down several times, but was always rebuilt.
Inside was a sanctuary of
Mars in which the twelve lances and shields of the Salians (from Latin
salire = "to leap") were kept. In addition, the Regia also contained a sanctuary of the
Ops Consivia, which was so sacred that only the
pontifex and the
vestal virgins were allowed to enter. In honour of the goddess, a harvest thanksgiving festival was held every year on 23 August on the Capitol. The annals of the city were also stored here.
Photo: Square of the former Regia on the
Forum,
Wikipedia (at the end of the article)
(2) Only later did the goddess receive a temple on the Capitol. It stood in the square in front of the temple of Iuppiter Optimus
Maximus next to the temple of
Fides. This temple was first mentioned in 186 BC as
aedes in Capitolio in connection with a lightning strike (Livius). It collapsed several times and was rebuilt. According to a remark by
Cicero, the statue of
Scipio Africanus stood here.
Gaius Iulius
Caesar deposited the state treasure of 700 million sesterces in the Temple of
Ops on the Capitol.
Marcus Antonius is said to have appropriated this treasure after
Caesar's death. Georg Ürodgi 1978 wanted to disprove this by purely technical considerations.
During the secular celebrations (
ludi saeculares) in 17 BC, the
matronae gathered in the temple, and in 80 AD, the Arval brothers. On the walls of the temple hung civic awards to soldiers, and inside were kept the
standard weights of the State, including a bronze
weight with the
inscription templ(um) Opis aug(ustae) (Roscher). This proves that the goddess worshipped here assumed the epithet
augusta in the course of the imperial period.
The day of inauguration fell on the feast of Opiconsivia on 25 August. It was
still in use during the 4th century and was finally closed during the persecution of the pagans by the
Christian emperors in the late
Roman Empire.
Remains found near the
church of Sant'Omobono (along with
column remains, remains of a podium and a large female marble
head, probably from an
acroterion)
had previously been identified as parts of the Temple of the
Ops. Now it is believed that they are more likely to be from the temple of
Fides, as a bilingual
inscription in Greek and Latin has been found next to it and parts of a contract between
Asia minor and the Roman Senate - and
Fides was the goddess of diplomatic relations.
Photo:Aedes Opis in Capitolio,
Wikipedia (at the end of the article)
(3) In addition, there must have been a third temple of
Ops; for Pliny, in an account of L. Caecilius Metellus Delmaticus, who was elected
pontifex maximus between 123 and 114 BC, writes of an
aedes Opiferae. This is also evident from a note in the lists of the
Fasti for 19 December: Opal(ia);
feriae Opi . Opi ad Forum.
Ops on the Capitol, however, was never called Opifera. Therefore this temple must have stood on the
Forum.
Ops opifera is otherwise only mentioned once again at the Volcanalia (to
ward off the conflagrations) appointed by
Augustus on 23 August, when sacrifices are made to her on the
Forum. This is understandable because a fire is especially feared when the harvest is already stored. Afterwards, the foundation day of the older temple on the Capitol with the Opiconsivia was combined with that of the younger temple of the
Ops opifera [in foro] with the Opalia.
Nothing more is known about the festive customs for
Ops. We only learn that the sacrarium of the
Ops Consiva, located in the Regia, could only be entered by the
vestal virgins and the
pontifex maximus. Their cult was secretive and closed and
had a parallel in that the
altar of Consus, located at the
Circus maximus, lay underground and was only uncovered at festival time. All typical characteristics for
chthonic deities.
The statement that vows were made to
Ops while sitting and touching the earth, however, probably refers not to the Roman goddess but to Rhea, who was later equated with her.
Art History:I have added the following illustrations (both from
Wikipedia):
(1) An image of the marble statue of
Livia Drusilla as
Ops, with sheaf of grain and
cornucopiae, Roman, 1st century AD, now in the Louvre. Since
Ops is depicted standing, it is not the old, original deity. Here it has clear echoes of
Abundantia.
(2) This is also the case with the following oil painting by
Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), "
Abundantia", ca. 1630, today in the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, in which the putti are enjoying the fruits from the
cornucopia. Under the right foot a purse. This painting is probably the preparatory study for a tapestry.
Sources:(1) Livius, Ab urbe condita
(2) Macrobius, Saturnalia
(3)
Cicero, de Natura deorum
(4)
Cicero, Letters to Atticus
(5) Pliny, Naturae
Historia(6) Sextus
Pompeius Festus, On the Meaning of Words.
Literature:(1) The
Kleiner Pauly(2) Benjamin Hederich, Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon, Leipzig 1770 (online too)
(3) Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher, Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie (online too)
(4) Theodor
Mommsen, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (
CIL)
(5) Georg Ürodgi,
Caesar,
Marcus Antonius and the Public
Money Stored in the Temple of
Ops, 1978.
(6) Der KleineStowasser, Lateinisches Schulwörterbuch,1960
(7) Gemoll, Griechisches Schul- und Handwörterbuch
Online sources:(1)
zeno.org
(2) theoi.com
(3)
wildwinds.com
(4) nabkal.de/romtag.html
(5)
WikipediaBest regards
Jochen