Hail Ops Consiva!
Hail to the goddess of abundance and power!
We request your aid in all our needs.
We give thanks to her who provides us our cereals of life.
May our store-closet be full for our community’s prosperity!
Salve Ops Consivia!
Salve Terra Mater!

 

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Ennius equates Ops with Ceres; Varro identifies her with the earth mother. Her name means ‘abundance’, ‘power’ and especially ‘power to aid’. The goddess who is connected to the preceding Volcanalia is Ops opifera, that is, the ‘Ops who brings wealth’. We also know of an Ops toitesia (presumably from tutus and suggesting the goddess as a deity of safety and security.)

For the feriae of the Opiconsivia, the goddess is honoured with the epithet Consiva or Consivia and is thereby linked with the god Consus whose festival is five days earlier. In December, Ops and Consus’ festivals are separated by the same number of days but flank the feriae of Saturnus as, in August, they flank that of Volcanus. Her connection with Consus suggests the deity as a harvest-goddess. Mythologically, Ops has been regarded as the wife of Saturnus – the latter being perhaps a further manifestation of Consus, Quirinus and Mars. The Hellenic underpinning behind Saturnus and Ops would be Cronos and Rhea.

Ops is connected to both the Capitolium and the Regia in the Forum. As with the terra mater in general, she is invoked while sitting on and touching the ground.