Di Indigetes

Di Indigetes

Religion in ancient Rome
Marcus Aurelius (head covered) sacrificing at the Temple of Jupiter
Practices and beliefs
libation · sacrifice · votum · temples · festivals · ludi · funerals Imperial cult · mystery religions
Priesthoods
Pontifex · Augur · Vestal · Flamen Fetial · Epulones · Arval
Deities
List of Roman deities Twelve major gods Capitoline Triad · Aventine Triad underworld gods · indigitamenta Deified emperors: Divus Julius · Divus Augustus
Related topics
Glossary of ancient Roman religion Roman mythology Religion in ancient Greece Etruscan religion Gallo-Roman religion Interpretatio graeca Decline of Greco-Roman polytheism

For the pre-Roman people on the Iberian peninsula, see Indigetes. Not to be confused with indigitamenta.

In Georg Wissowa's terminology, the di indigetes or indigites were Roman deities not adopted from other religions, as distinguished from the di novensides. Wissowa thus regarded the indigetes as "indigenous" gods, and the novensides as "newcomer gods". Ancient usage, however, does not treat the two terms as a dichotomy, nor maintain this clear-cut distinction. Wissowa's interpretation is no longer widely accepted and the meaning remains uncertain.

In classical Latin, the epithet Indiges, singular in form, is applied to Sol (Sol Indiges) and to Jupiter of Lavinium, later identified with Aeneas. One theory holds that it means the "speaker within", and goes back to before the recognition of divine persons. Another, which the Oxford Classical Dictionary holds more likely, is that it means "invoked" in the sense of "pointing to", as in the related word indigitamenta.

In Augustan literature, the di indigites are often associated with di patrii and appear in lists of local divinities (that is, divinities particular to a place). Servius notes that Praeneste had its own indigetes.

Evidence pertaining to di indigites is rarely found outside Rome and Lavinium, but a fragmentary inscription from Aletrium (modern Alatri, north of Frosinone) records offerings to di Indicites including Fucinus, a local lake-god; Summanus, a god of nocturnal lightning; Fiscellus, otherwise unknown, but perhaps a local mountain god; and the Tempestates, weather deities. The inscription has been interpreted as a list of local or nature deities to whom transhumant shepherds should make propitiary offers.

Wissowa listed 33 di indigetes, including two collectives in the plural, the Lares of the estate and the Lemures of the dead. Any list of indigetes, however, is conjectural; Raimo Anttila points out that "we do not know the list of the di indigetes."