Ops, A Compendium of the Ancient Gods

Ops was the Roman goddess of abundance, wealth, and the fruitfulness of the soil; her name in Latin meant simply "plenty" or "resource," and was in the same family as the verb opitulari, "to bring help." She was an old indigenous goddess, but at an early date she was identified with Greek Rhea, and through this identification she became the wife of Saturn and the mother of Jupiter, Juno, Neptune, and the rest of the Olympian generation in their Roman forms.

Her festivals were two: the Opiconsivia of August 25, kept four days after the Consualia and clearly linked to it (Saturn-Consus and Ops-Opiconsiva forming a divine pair, the storer and the abundance stored), and the Opalia of December 19, kept two days after the Saturnalia. The August rite was so archaic and sacred that none might attend save the Vestal Virgins and the flamen Quirinalis; even the Pontifex Maximus was barred. The December festival was more public and was felt as part of the great Saturnalian holiday, the time of the year's return.

In her cult, Ops was approached with a peculiar gesture: the worshipper sat upon the earth and touched it with his hand while invoking her, for the abundance she represented was the abundance of the earth itself, and one must be in contact with the earth to address her. The same gesture is recorded for the worship of Tellus, with whom Ops shared much of her function. In imperial times Ops became also the protectress of the wealth of the state, and her image appeared on coins as a matron seated upon a throne with a sheaf of wheat or a cornucopia.

Curator’s note

What the sources say, and what later tradition added. The sources for this bay

Ops is described by Festus (s.v. Opima spolia, Opiconsivia), Macrobius (Saturnalia 1.10.18-22), Varro (De Lingua Latina 5.64, where the etymology from ops is given), and Augustine (City of God 4.8, 4.11, 7.24, where the multiplication of agricultural deities is mocked). The Opiconsivia and Opalia are listed in the surviving Roman calendars. The earth-touching gesture is described by Macrobius (Saturnalia 1.10.21). Ops-Saturn is the Roman pairing that most clearly reflects the older Italic theology of stored abundance, and is independent of (though reinforced by) the Greek Rhea-Cronus identification.

Kin in the sources

Each tie is quoted from the entry that states it.

Named as the same god asRheaat an early date she was identified with Greek Rhea
Consort ofSaturnthrough this identification she became the wife of Saturn and the mother of Jupiter, Juno, Neptune
Companion ofConsusSaturn-Consus and Ops-Opiconsiva forming a divine pair, the storer and the abundance stored

The same god in other rooms

The ancient sources themselves name these as one god under different names. See Cybele, Rhea and Ops hung together

When the sources speak

Dated witnesses for The Indigenous Italic Gods. A date marks when the evidence was written down, not when the belief began. The whole timeline

c. 1000–750 BCE: Iron Age communities of Latium and neighboring peoples develop the cult landscapes later absorbed into Roman tradition.
traditional 753 BCE: Roman foundation chronology places Romulus and the first civic institutions at the beginning of the city’s sacred history.
traditional 7th–6th centuries BCE: The regal period is credited with priesthoods, calendars, temples, and the organization of public rites.
509–264 BCE: Republican expansion incorporates Latin, Sabine, Etruscan, and Italian cults through treaty, migration, and evocatio.
264–146 BCE: Mediterranean conquest accelerates Greek interpretation and the importation or redefinition of foreign gods.
204 BCE: The Magna Mater is formally brought from Pessinus during the Second Punic War.
1st century BCE: Varro, Cicero, and other antiquarians document rites and divine names amid civil war and institutional change.
27 BCE–14 CE: Augustan restoration monumentalizes selected ancestral cults and rewrites Roman sacred history.