Classical writers speak of Dryades or âDruidessesâ in the third century. One of them predicted his approaching death to Alexander Severus, another promised the empire to Diocletian, others were consulted by Aurelian. Thus they were divineresses, rather than priestesses, and their name may be the result of misconception, unless they assumed it when Druids no longer existed as a class. In Ireland there were divineressesâban-filid or ban-fĂĄthi, probably a distinct class with prophetic powers. Kings are warned against âpythonessesâ as well as Druids, and Dr. Joyce thinks these were Druidesses. S. Patrick also armed himself against âthe spells of womenâ and of Druids. Women in Ireland had a knowledge of futurity, according to Solinus, and the women who took part with the Druids like furies at Mona, may have been divineresses. In Ireland it is possible that such women were called âDruidesses,â since the word ban-drui is met with, the women so called being also styled ban-fili, while the fact that they belonged to the class of the Filid brings them into connection with the Druids. But ban-drui may have been applied to women with priestly functions, such as certainly existed in Irelandâe.g. the virgin guardians of sacred fires, to whose functions Christian nuns succeeded. We know also that the British queen Boudicca exercised priestly functions, and such priestesses, apart from the Dryades, existed among the continental Celts.
-The Religion of the Ancient Celts by J. A. MacCulloch
