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 stems from 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 at", 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 noted 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. This inscription has been interpreted as a list of local or nature deities to whom transhumant shepherds should make propitiary offers.

Wissowa's indigetes

In Georg Wissowa's terminology, the di indigetes or indigites were Roman deities that were 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 use, however, does not treat the two terms as a dichotomy, nor maintain a clear-cut distinction between indigetes and novensides. Wissowa's interpretation is no longer widely accepted and the meaning remains uncertain.

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."

Ancient sources

Carl Koch compiled a list of Latin authors and inscriptions using the phrase di indigetes or Indiges:

  • Livy, 1.2.6, on the end of the mortal life of Aeneas on the river Numicus and his identification with or assimilation to Iovem Indigetem in that place.
  • Livy, 8.9.6, the formula of the devotio of Decius Mus
  • CIL I Elog. I from Pompeii: ... apellatusque est Indige(n)s Pater et in deorum numero relatus.
  • Vergil, Aeneid 12.794, as an epithet of Aeneas
  • Pliny, Natural History 3.56, as an epithet of Sol
  • CIL 10.5779 from Sora, Iovi Airsii Dis Indigetibus cum aedicl(a) et base [et ae]di? et porticu.
  • Vergil, Georgics 1.498, Dii patrii Indigetes et Romule Vestaque Mater... .
  • Ovid, Metamporphoses 15.862, ... di Indigetes genitorque Quirine ..., in the invocation that concludes the poem.
  • Silius Italicus, Punica 9.278, Di Indigetes Faunusque satorque Quirinus; also 10.435 ff.
  • Lucan, Pharsalia 1.556, mentions the di indigetes along with the Lares.
  • Claudian, Bellum Gildonicum 1.131
  • Macrobius, Ad Somnium Scipionis 1.9
  • Symmachus, Relatio 3.10

Scholarship on the di indigetes

C. Koch, A. Grenier, H. J. Rose, Hendrik Wagenvoort, E. Vetter, K. Latte, G. Radke, R. Schilling, and more recently, R. Anttila have made contributions to the enquiry into the meaning of the word Indiges and on the original nature of the di indigetes.

Koch

Carl Koch's analysis and on Johannes Lydus de Mensibus IV 155: ... Agonalia daphneephorooi kai genarcheeei Heliooi ...: Agonalia for the laurel bearer and primaeval ancestor Sol, that Lydus compares to a similar custom in Athens terminating with laurel bearing. Sol Indiges had two festivals, the other one occurring on August 9, on the Quirinal. Koch remarks too that the festival of December 11 is in correspondence with the Matralia of June 11, dedicated to Mater Matuta, considered the goddess of dawn and, in the ritual, the aunt of the sun, who is the son of the night. Koch was the first to advance the hypothesis of the Sol Indiges as the forefather (Stammvater) of the Roman nation.

Grenier

Albert Grenier contributed a paper in which he expands on the results obtained by Koch and pays more attention to the original nature of the di Indigetes. He acknowledges similar conclusions have been reached by Hendrik Wagenvoort.

As Koch did, Grenier in which are mentioned, after Iuppiter Capitolinus, Vesta, and Mars Pater, Helios genarchees, and euergetin zooin te kai phytoon Geen (‘the mother Earth which benefits animals and plants’). Grenier thinks that Sol Indiges and the Good Mother Earth (whom he interprets to be the Mater Matuta of the Matralia) would be the di Indigetes of the devotio of Decius Mus.

He goes on to analyse the other testimonies related to the cult of the di indigetes found in Dionysius of Halicarnassus. On this evidence, Grenier concludes that Sol Indiges is connected to Lavinium and to the cult of the Penates publici of Rome. This fact is supported by Varro: Lavinium ibi dii penates nostri.

Grenier concludes from such evidence that the Penates were included within the indigetes.