Andraste, also known as Andrasta, was, according to the Roman historian

Dio Cassius Lucius Cassius Dio (), also known as Dio Cassius ( ), was a Roman historian and senator of maternal Greek origin. He published 80 volumes of the history on ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the ...

, an

Iceni The Iceni ( , ) or Eceni were a Brittonic tribe of eastern Britain during the Iron Age and early Roman era. Their territory included present-day Norfolk and parts of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, and bordered the area of the Corieltauvi to the we ...

c war goddess invoked by

Boudica Boudica or Boudicca (, known in Latin chronicles as Boadicea or Boudicea, and in Welsh as ()), was a queen of the ancient British Iceni tribe, who led a failed uprising against the conquering forces of the Roman Empire in AD 60 or 61. She ...

in her fight against the

Roman occupation of Britain Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered wa ...

in AD 60. She may be the same as Andate, mentioned later by the same source, and described as "their name for Victory": i.e., the goddess Victoria. Thayer asserts that she may also be related to Andarta. The goddess Victoria is related to Nike,

Bellona Bellona may refer to: Places *Bellona, Campania, a ''comune'' in the Province of Caserta, Italy * Bellona Reef, a reef in New Caledonia *Bellona Island, an island in Rennell and Bellona Province, Solomon Islands Ships * HMS ''Bellona'' (1760), a 7 ...

, Magna Mater (Great Mother), Cybele, and Vacuna—goddesses who are often depicted on

chariots A chariot is a type of cart driven by a charioteer, usually using horses to provide rapid motive power. The oldest known chariots have been found in burials of the Sintashta culture in modern-day Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, dated to c. 2000&nbs ...

. Her name has been translated as meaning "indestructible" or "unconquerable". Many

neopagan Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, is a term for a religion or family of religions influenced by the various historical pre-Christian beliefs of pre-modern peoples in Europe and adjacent areas of North Afric ...

sources describe the

hare Hares and jackrabbits are mammals belonging to the genus ''Lepus''. They are herbivores, and live solitarily or in pairs. They nest in slight depressions called forms, and their young are able to fend for themselves shortly after birth. The g ...

as sacred to Andraste. This idea seems to be extrapolated from the passage in Dio Cassius in which

releases a hare from her gown: The hare's release is described as a technique of

divination Divination (from Latin ''divinare'', 'to foresee, to foretell, to predict, to prophesy') is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Used in various forms throughout history ...

, with an augury drawn from the direction in which it runs. This appears to be similar to the Roman methods of

which ascribe meaning to the directions from which birds fly, with the left side being unfavourable (''sinistra'') and the right side favourable.

Popular culture

The name Andraste is borrowed in the ''

Dragon Age ''Dragon Age'' is a media franchise centered on a series of fantasy role-playing video games created and developed by BioWare, which have seen releases on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The fr ...

'' video game series by BioWare to refer to a religious prophet central to the fantasy world's religious practices. The name is also used for an enemy in the Playstation 3 video game ''

Folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, rangin ...

''.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography *

External links

Somewhat speculative page on Andraste and Boudica.
{{Celtic mythology (ancient) Goddesses of the ancient Britons War goddesses Celtic goddesses