Andraste, also known as Andrasta or Andred, was, according to the Roman historian Dio Cassius

Dio Cassius

Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus , known in English as Cassius Dio, Dio Cassius, or Dio was a Roman consul and a noted historian writing in Greek...

, an Iceni

Iceni

The Iceni or Eceni were a British tribe who inhabited an area of East Anglia corresponding roughly to the modern-day county of Norfolk between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD...

c war goddess invoked by Boudica

Boudica

Boudica , also known as Boadicea and known in Welsh as "Buddug" was queen of the British Iceni tribe who led an uprising against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire....

 in her fight against the Roman occupation of Britain

Roman Britain

Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...

 in AD 61. 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

Victoria (mythology)

In ancient Roman religion, Victoria was the personified goddess of victory. She is the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Nike, and was associated with Bellona. She was adapted from the Sabine agricultural goddess Vacuna and had a temple on the Palatine Hill...

. Thayer asserts that she may be related to Andarta

Andarta

In Celtic polytheism, Andarta was a warrior goddess worshipped in southern Gaul. Inscriptions to her have been found in southern France and in Berne, Switzerland. She may be related to the goddess Andate, identified with Victory in Britain according to Roman historian Cassius Dio...

 also. The goddess Victoria is related to Nike

Nike (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Nike was a goddess who personified victory, also known as the Winged Goddess of Victory. The Roman equivalent was Victoria. Depending upon the time of various myths, she was described as the daughter of Pallas and Styx and the sister of Kratos , Bia , and Zelus...

, Bellona

Bellona (goddess)

Bellona was an Ancient Roman goddess of war, similar to the Ancient Greek Enyo. Bellona's attribute is a sword and she is depicted wearing a helmet and armed with a spear and a torch....

, Magna Mater (Great Mother

Great Mother

The Great Mother refers to the concept of the mother goddess, including:*Great Mother, in the Mahayana and Vajrayana refers to Prajnaparamita, and the wisdom of the Madhyamaka...

), Cybele

Cybele

Cybele , was a Phrygian form of the Earth Mother or Great Mother. As with Greek Gaia , her Minoan equivalent Rhea and some aspects of Demeter, Cybele embodies the fertile Earth...

, and Vacuna

Vacuna

Vacuna was an ancient Sabine goddess, identified by ancient Roman sources and later scholars with numerous other goddesses, including Ceres, Diana, Nike, Minerva, Bellona, Venus and Victoria. She was mainly worshipped at a sanctuary in near Horace's villa , in sacred woods at Reate, and at...

—goddesses who are often depicted on chariots.

Many Neopagan sources describe the hare

Hare

Hares and jackrabbits are leporids belonging to the genus Lepus. Hares less than one year old are called leverets. Four species commonly known as types of hare are classified outside of Lepus: the hispid hare , and three species known as red rock hares .Hares are very fast-moving...

 as sacred to Andraste. This seems to derive from a misreading of the passage in Dio Cassius in which Boudica releases a hare from her gown:
The hare's release is described as a technique of divination

Divination

Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic standardized process or ritual...

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

Divination

Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic standardized process or ritual...

which ascribe meaning to the directions in which birds fly, with the left side being auspicious and the right side inauspicious.

External links

• Somewhat speculative page on Andraste and Boudica.