 The meaning of the epithet "indiges" (singular) has no scholarly consensus, and "noven" may mean "nine" "(novem)" rather than "new".A lectisternium is a banquet for the gods, at which they appear as images seated on couches, as if present and participating.In describing the lectisternium of the Twelve Great gods in 217 BC, the Augustan historian Livy places the deities in gender-balanced pairs