Andraste

Andraste, also known as Andrasta, was, according to the Roman historian Dio Cassius, an Icenic war goddess invoked by Boudica in her fight against the Roman occupation of Britain in AD 60.[1] 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.[2] Thayer asserts that she may also be related to Andarta. The goddess Victoria is related to Nike, Bellona, Magna Mater (Great Mother), Cybele, and Vacuna—goddesses who are often depicted on chariots. Her name has been translated as meaning "indestructible" or "unconquerable".[3]

Many neopagan sources describe the hare as sacred to Andraste. This idea seems to be extrapolated from the passage in Dio Cassius in which Boudica 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 [Boudica] 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 Boudica, raising her hand towards heaven, said: "I thank you, Andraste, and call upon you as woman speaking to woman ... I beg you for victory and preservation of liberty."[2]

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 from which birds fly, with the left side being unfavourable (sinistra) and the right side favourable.[4]

The name Andraste is borrowed in the Dragon Age 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 PS3 video game Folklore. [5]

gollark: I... What?
gollark: It mostly calls out to other processes to work.
gollark: Bash is going to be slower than Lua.
gollark: `tput` itself is not very slow, probably, but constantly spawning processes for it - once per pixel or more - is.
gollark: `node2nix` has been running for at least 5 minutes now, traversing the crazy, crazy dependency tree without even downloading them.

References
Notes
  1. Kightly 1982, pp. 36–40
  2. Cassius Dio, Bill Thayer, retrieved 7 August 2011
  3. Green, Miranda (1995). Celtic Goddesses p. 32, British Museum Press.
  4. Religio Romana, "Augury".
  5. Gaider, David (2013). Dragon Age: The World of Thedas. Dark Horse Comics. ISBN 978-1-61655-115-5.
Bibliography
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.