Spes the personified Hope of the Romans, was originally conceived of as the Hope of yearly harvests, for which reason she was represented with a wreath of flowers in her hair and ears of grain or a cornucopia in her hands.
Subsequently she became the goddess of the marriage bed, and only at a later day Hope in an abstract sense. She was worshipped at Rome, where several temples were dedicated to her, the most ancient of which had been built by the consul Atilius. Calatinus, B.C. 354 (Livy, 2, 51, etc.; Tacit. Ann. 2, 49). The Greeks, too, worshipped Elpis, the personification of hope. When the different evils escaped from the Pandora box, Elpis alone remained behind for the consolation of mankind. See Hesiod, Op. et D. 96; Theognis, 570 sq.