INDIGITAMENTA. - From the Latin a(g)io, aio “I say, entreat, invoke,” these are lists of animistic-type divinities who are invoked (“indigitate”) by an epithet denoting the action they can perform for the benefit of those who invoke them.
About 150 are listed, for the most part relating to individual acts or needs of human life, agriculture, and the household. Thus, with reference to human life, Levana protects the act of lifting from the ground the newborn laid-
down immediately after birth; Cunina protects the infant in the cradle, Rumina breastfeeding, Fabulinus the first babblings, Stabilinus the first steps. In the various operations of agriculture, Sterculinus oversees manuring, Redator ploughing, Sarritor hoeing, Messor reaping. And, in the house, Cardea cares for the door hinges, Forculus the leaves, Limentinus the threshold, Arculus the kneading-trough.
The divinities of the i. were not invoked in public worship; but although belonging chiefly to private worship, their list had been drawn up by the College of Pontiffs, and Varro recorded it in books 14, 15, and 16 of the now lost Antiquitates divinae, placing these gods in the category of certain gods, since their names indicate when they must be invoked. Varro’s work was summarized by s. Agostino in book VII of the De civitate Dei.