{{short description, Hero from Roman mythology
According to the Roman historian
Livy
Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in ...
, Jupiter Indiges is the name given to the deified hero
Aeneas
In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas (, ; from ) was a Trojan hero, the son of the Trojan prince Anchises and the Greek goddess Aphrodite (equivalent to the Roman Venus (mythology), Venus). His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy (both ...
. In some versions of his story, he is raised up to become a god after his death by Numicius, a local deity of the river of the same name, at the request of Aeneas' mother
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...
. The title Pater Indiges or simply Indiges is also used.
The Greek historian
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Dionysius of Halicarnassus ( grc, Διονύσιος Ἀλεξάνδρου Ἁλικαρνασσεύς,
; – after 7 BC) was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Emperor Augustus. His literary style ...
notes that when the body of Aeneas was not found after a battle between his group of Trojan exiles in Italy and the native Rutulians, it was assumed that he had been taken up by the gods to become a deity. He also presents the alternative explanation that Aeneas may have simply drowned in the river Numicus and that a shrine in his memory was built there.
The term "Indiges", thought by some to be from the same root as "indigenous", may reflect the fact that these minor deities (collectively, the '' Di indigetes'') originated locally in Italy.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities edited William Smith (1870) p. 573 An alternate explanation is that they were individuals who were raised to the status of gods after mortal life. Compare for example Sol Indiges.