A candle kept litWineIncenseThe naming of what is hoped forA first step taken
Invocation Approach
Tone
Gentle and formal
Address
SpesHopeSpes Augusta
Relationship
The thing hoped for held without guarantee
Warning
She is expectation and does not promise the outcome
Resonance
Those waiting on a verdict a harvest or a birth
Symbols
The budThe flower in the handThe cornucopiaThe forward step
Mythology Summary
Spes is the Roman personification of hope, and her temple in the Forum Holitorium was built by Aulus Atilius Calatinus in the First Punic War, restored in 232 BCE, rebuilt after the fire of 213 BCE and restored again by Germanicus in 17 CE (Livy 24.47 and 25.7; six of its columns still stand in the church of San Nicola in Carcere). She is a civic personification rather than a mythic person: her business is expectation, including the expectation of an heir, and Spes Augusta put that expectation at the service of the imperial house. The Greek equivalent is Elpis, who in Hesiod's Works and Days alone remained in Pandora's jar (96-99).
Modern Practice
Spes is invoked in the waiting - for a verdict, a diagnosis, a harvest, a birth - and her practice is to name the thing hoped for precisely and then take the first step that is actually available. She is not asked for a guarantee, and does not give one.