Andraste

There is no surviving native narrative myth describing the origin of Andraste; the figure appears in the extant record through a Roman historiographical account of Boudica's revolt in AD 60. In that narrative the leader Boudica performs a public divinatory act and immediately addresses a named supernatural patron, thanking 'Andraste' and appealing for "victory and preservation of liberty." The Roman author Dio Cassius also later records the Iceni name 'Andate' and explicitly renders it as their name for Victory (Victoria), which places Andraste within a conceptual framework of a local victory-associated supernatural being as filtered through Roman interpretatio.

No contemporary physical description or iconography of Andraste is preserved in the supplied sources. The only surviving attestations are verbal: a named invocation recorded by a Roman historian. Comparative remarks in later commentary link Andraste conceptually to Mediterranean victory goddesses (e.g., Victoria, Nike) and to scholarly suggestions of affinities with figures such as Andarta, but such associations are interpretive and not presented in the primary Roman passage as descriptions of Andraste's appearance.

The primary attestation represents Andraste as a recipient of devotion in a martial context and as a being whose favor is sought for victory in battle and for the preservation of communal liberty. In Dio Cassius's report the invocation follows a divinatory omen (the release of a hare) and the public appeal implies that Andraste is understood as one who can be petitioned for success in armed resistance. Beyond this functional association with victory and protection of freedom, the supplied sources do not catalogue additional powers, temperament, or domestic roles.