Andraste
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Andraste, according to Dio Cassius, was a Celtic goddess thanked by Boudicca while fighting against the Roman occupation of Britain in AD 61. She is mentioned only once. She may be the same as Andante, mentioned later by the same source, and described as 'their name for Victory', i.e. the Goddess Victoria. [1] (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/62*.html).
Some Celtic coins are said to show images of Andraste.
Misapprehensions concerning Andraste
Many neopagan sources describe the hare as sacred to Andraste. This seems to derive from a misreading of the passage in Dio Cassius in which Boudicca releases a hare from her gown:
"Let us, therefore, go against (the Romans), trusting boldly to good fortune. Let us show them that they are hares and foxes trying to rule over dogs and wolves." When she had finished speaking, she employed a species of divination, letting a hare escape from the fold of her dress; and since it ran on what they considered the auspicious side, the whole multitude shouted with pleasure, and Buduica, raising her hand toward heaven, said: "I thank thee, Andraste, and call upon thee as woman speaking to woman..."
The hare's release is described as a technique of divination, with an augury drawn from the direction in which it runs. This appears to be similar to the Roman methods of divination which ascribe meaning to the directions in which birds fly, with the left side being auspicious and the right side inauspicious [2] (http://www.religioromana.net/augury.htm).
Taking an augury at this point before a battle is a thus a means of testing the 'good fortune' of which Boudicca speaks, with no implication that the hare is sacred to Andraste. More importantly, the unflattering comparison of the Romans with 'hares and foxes' is not consistent with the reverence one would expect if the hare were a symbol of the Goddess. Boudicca is evidently giving thanks to Andraste for the omen of victory and not addressing the hare as Andraste.
External link
- Somewhat speculative page on Andraste and Boudicca. (http://www.thewhitegoddess.co.uk/goddess/andraste.html)