Statue of Boudica
ahn-DRAH-steh or ahn-DRAHST
"Let us, therefore, go against, trusting boldly to good fortune. Let us show them that they are hares and foxes trying to rule over dogs and wolves. I thank you, Andraste, and call upon you as woman speaking to woman...I beg you for victory and preservation of liberty." - Boudica, Queen of British Iceni. (1)
Andraste, whose name means "invincibility", was a Celtic war goddess and the patron of victory. Other translations see the name as "the invincible one" or "she who has not fallen", but they are all along the same lines. (3) Unfortunately, as with much of Ancient British history, our only records of the goddess and her worship come from Roman writings - in the case of this deity, the writings of Cassius Dio and Tacitus when speaking of the Icenic Queen Boudica who led a rebellion against the Romans, nearly driving them from Britain.
Due to this association, our present day perspective of Andraste is as a champion of a strong women, a goddess of war, victory, and liberty who is both powerful and savage, just as war is powerful and savage. Boudica was a warrior, a woman wronged who sought both vengeance and the liberty of her nation, who also comitted atrocities in her campaign. Whether these were in the name of the Goddess is unclear, however Cassius Dio believed her to have sacrificed Roman women to Andraste.
According to his writings, "the goddess was worshipped in a grove, where Roman women were sacrificed to her". In this grove, noble women "were impaled on spikes and had their breasts cut off and sewn to thier mouths, 'to the accojmpaniment of sacrifices, banquiets, and wanton behavior'." This place was known as the Groves of Andraste thereafter, thought it is unclear if it was called so before. (2) Other accounts translate the last to be "but particularly in the grove of Andate. This was their word for Victory, and they regarded her with most exeptional reverence.." (AtlanicReligion.com, "The Iceni Andraste").
Andraste, according to Wikipedia, was also called Andrasta or Andred (not to be confused with the Arthurian hero Andred). Some scholars believe her to be the same goddess as Andate and Andarta.
Ben Jonson, Beaumont, and Fletcher use the name Andate in "The Tragedy of Bonduca" ("Divine Andate, though who hold'st the reins of furious battles, and disordere'd war..." Act 3, Scene 1).
Poems, containing sketches of northern mythology by Frank Sayers sheds more light on who Andate may potential be.
"...Raife aloft, Andate, raife
Thy golden fhield -
Loudly ftrike its echoing brim
And wake the found of victory - ..."
"Andate or Andrafte was the Celtic Goddefs of victory; the Britons held her in great eftimation, and facrificed to her in groves called after her name." (Milton's Hiftory of England - Britan. Antiq. Illufsrat. p. 37
Sayers goes on to draw from Selden, de Dis Syriss Syntag. IL. cap ii. and Bochart de Phoenic. Coloniis, Lib1. cap xiii. "The Syrian Goddefs Afhtoreth or Aftarte, the armed or conquering Venus of the Phoenicians, who, like Andate, was chiefly worfhipped in woods, is evidently the prototype of this Britifh Goddefs."
Astarte is the Hellenized form of Ishtar. As-dar-tu, Athtart, Attart, Ashtoret, Ashteroth, Astartes, Uni-Astre are all names she has been known under. Accoring to Wikipedia: Astarte, she reigns over fertility, sexuality, and war and her symbols are the lion, horse, sphinx, dove, and a star within a circle (a symbol of Venus). She is often naked and connected to the evening star. The Roman's called her Venus Erycina and to the Phoenicians she was the daughter of Epigeius (Uranus) and Ge (Earth), sister of Elus, Asherah, and Ba'alat Gebal.
Whether Andate is the same goddess as Astarte and both are the same as Andraste remains to be seen, though it is highly likely that Andraste and Andate are the same given their interchangable use (though the possibility remains that they may have been two seperate goddesses Boudica called upon, one of war and one of victory, one to make her invulnerable, one to celebrate her sucess).
As for Andarta, who is a Gallic goddess of fertility and connected with the wilderness, that is unkonwn. According to TimelessMyths.com and The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore by Patricia Monaghan Andarta was a Celtic goddess maintly involved with the Voconces tribe. Wikipedia merely states she is "a warrior goddess worshipped in southern Gaul. Inscriptions to her have been found in southern France and in Bern, Switzerland". It is also mentioned in both sources that she may be associated with the Bear.
I have found some mention of a relationship between Andraste and Ravens, however as yet I have not found the origin of the relationship. Some related her to Hares, however this comes from a misinterprestation of Dio Cassius' writings in which he describes a form of divination where a Celt would release an animal (a hare, flock of birds, etc) and read the fortune based on what direction it flew/ran. (1)
Atlantic Religion (see link above) mentions the possibility that Andraste was not related to any of the above deities and poses the question of her name being Andraste at all. Instead, they reason, her name may have been An Dras De - a phrase misunderstood by Cassius Dio that means "The Tribal God". They cite the exampled of the god Dagda, who is also known as An Dag De. In this case, it is possible that she was only the goddess Andate and that Boudica called her An Dras De (her tribe's god) or as the article states that this was an entirely different god. I do disagree with the writers idea that the deity was actually the male god An Dagdae, however, considering the phrasing Cassius Dio has Boudica use "a woman speaking to a woman" being the strongest. If the phrase Boudica used was indeed An Dras De, this then gives even more reasoning to why we have so little information on either Andate or Andraste, as she may have been worshipped within the limits of the Iceni Tribe.
The White Goddess suggests that Andraste is to be called in the darkest of times, in dire emergency and with the sacrifice of blood. She also suggests that Andres is her lunar-mother aspect, associated with fertility and that Andraste is the darker, crone aspect. The website also gives the interesting idea that Boudica was not merely a queen, but priestess of Andrate, or even an Avatar of the Goddess herself.
As for myself, I believe that Andraste was called upon, not only as a deity of war and victory, but also as an avenging deity. Boudica had much to avenge upon the Romans - understanding that her kingdom had been allied to Rome and upon her husbands death it was taken from her and her daughter, his rightful heirs. She was flogged, her daughters were raped, and according to Cassius Dio, forced to pay the Empire. Indeed, their was much the Roman's owed to the Warrior Queen.
Our views of Andraste will forever by colored by the plight and personality of Boudica, a tale of war, vengeance, struggle, liberty, and retribution; we will never know if the deity had a softer side to her personality, if she was a primary goddess, if she was only called upon in certain, dire situations, if she had a cult dedicated to her, etc. However what we do know is that once there was a powerful warrior goddess who did not shrink at the savagery of war in pursuit of victory, one who could be called upon to leard her chosen champion to justice.
"Let us, therefore, go against them 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; for I rule over no burden-bearing Egyptians as did Nitocris, nor over trafficking Assyrians as did Semiramis (for we have by now gained thus much learning from the Romans!), much less over the Romans themselves as did Messalina once and afterwards Agrippina and now Nero (who, though in name a man, is in fact a woman, as is proved by his singing, lyre-playing and beautification of his person); nay, those over whom I rule are Britons, men that know not how to till the soil or ply a trade, but are thoroughly versed in the art of war and hold all things in common, even children and wives, so that the latter possess the same valour as the men.
As the queen, then, of such men and of such women, I supplicate and pray thee for victory, preservation of life, and liberty against men insolent, unjust, insatiable, immpious - if, indeed, we ought to term those people men who bathe in warm water, eat artificial dainties, drink unmixed wine, anoint themselves with myrrh, sleep on soft couches with boys for bedfellow - boys past their prime at that - and are slaves to a lyre-player and a poor one too.
Wherefore may this Mistress Domitia-Nero reign no longer over me or over you men; let the wench sing and lord it over Romans, for they surely deserve to be slaves of such a woman after having submitted to her so long. But for us, Mistress, be thouh alone ever our leader."
- Dio Cassius, Roman History by Cassius Dio, Published in Vol. VIII of Loeb Classical Library edition, 1925.
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1) Wikipedia, Andraste :: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andraste 2) Celtic Culture: Aberdeen breviary-calticism by John T. Koch
3) The White Goddess, Andraste :: http://www.thewhitegoddess.co.uk/the_goddess/andraste_-_the_warrior_goddess.asp
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