Iris (mythology)

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Iris (mythology)

In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
, Iris is the personification of the rainbow

Rainbow

A rainbow is an optics and meteorology phenomenon that causes a optical spectrum of light to appear in the sky when the Sun shines onto droplets of moisture in the Earth's atmosphere....
and messenger of the gods. As the sun unites Earth

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun. Earth is the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in diameter, mass and density. It is also referred to as the World and Wiktionary:Terra.Note that by International Astronomical Union convention, the term "Terra" is used for naming extensive land masses, rather...
and heaven

Heaven

Heaven may refer to the physical heavens, the atmosphere or the seemingly endless expanse of the universe beyond. This is the traditional literal meaning of the term in English, however since at least AD 1000, it is typically also used to refer to an afterlife plane of existence in various religions and spirituality philosophy, often descri...
, Iris links the gods to humanity. She travels with the speed of wind from one end of the world to the other, and into the depths of the sea

SEA

See also: Sea and seasThe three-letter acronym SEA may refer to:People/organizations/businesses*Scientists and Engineers for America, a pro-science political advocacy group....
and the underworld

Underworld

In the study of mythology and religion, the underworld is a generic term approximately equivalent to the lay term afterlife, referring to any place to which newly the dead souls go....
.

is frequently mentioned as a divine messenger in the Iliad
ILiad

The iLiad is an electronic handheld device, or e-book device, which can be used for document reading and editing. Like the Sony Reader or Amazon Kindle, the iLiad makes use of an electronic paper display....
which is attributed to Homer

Homer

Homer is traditionally held to be the author of the ancient Greek language epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as of the Homeric Hymns....
, but does not appear in his Odyssey
Odyssey

The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Hellenic civilization epic poetrys attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work traditionally ascribed to Homer....
, where Hermes

Hermes

Hermes is the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology. An Twelve Olympians, he is also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of thieves and road travelers, of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures, of invention, of general commerce, and of the cunni...
fills that role.

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Encyclopedia

In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Rainbow

Earth

Heaven

SEA

Underworld

In the study of mythology and religion, the underworld is a generic term approximately equivalent to the lay term afterlife, referring to any place to which newly the dead souls go....
.

Greco-Roman pantheon

Iris is frequently mentioned as a divine messenger in the Iliad
ILiad

The iLiad is an electronic handheld device, or e-book device, which can be used for document reading and editing. Like the Sony Reader or Amazon Kindle, the iLiad makes use of an electronic paper display....
which is attributed to Homer

Homer

Hermes

Mercury (mythology)

In Roman mythology, Mercury was a messenger, and a god of trade, profit and commerce, the son of Maia Maiestas, also known as Ops, the Roman version of Cronus, and Jupiter ....
), Iris carries a caduceus

Caduceus

The caduceus is typically depicted as a short herald's Staff entwined by two Serpent in the form of a double helix, and sometimes is surmounted by wings....
or winged staff. By command of Zeus

Zeus

Zeus in Greek mythology is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky father and List of thunder gods. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull , and oak....
, the king of the gods, she carries a ewer of water from the Styx

Styx (mythology)

In Greek mythology, the "River Styx" was a river which formed the boundary between Earth and the Underworld . It circles Hades nine times. The rivers Styx, Phlegethon, Acheron and Cocytus all converge at the center of Hades on a great swamp....
, with which she puts to sleep all who perjure

Perjury

Category:Limited geographic scopeCategory:USA-centricPerjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or Affirmation in law to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding....
themselves. Goddess of sea

SEA

See also: Sea and seasThe three-letter acronym SEA may refer to:People/organizations/businesses*Scientists and Engineers for America, a pro-science political advocacy group....
and sky

Sky

The sky is the part of the atmosphere or of outer space visible from the surface of any astronomical object. It is difficult to define precisely for several reasons....
, she is also represented as supplying the cloud

Cloud

A cloud is a visible mass of Drop or frozen crystals floating in the Celestial body atmosphere above the surface of the Earth or another planetary body....
s with the water needed to deluge the world, consistent with her identification with the rainbow

Rainbow

Boreads

The Boreads, in Greek mythology, were Calais and Zetes . They were the sons of Boreas and Oreithyia, daughter of King Erechtheus of Athens....
, who numbered amongst the Argonauts

Argonauts

In Greek mythology, the Argonauts were a band of heroes who, in the years before the Trojan War, accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece....
, Iris delivered the prophet Phineas

Phineas

In Greek mythology, Phineas was a King of Thrace.The name 'Phineas' or 'Phineus' may be associated with the ancient city of Phinea on the Thracian Bosphorus....
from the attentions of the tormenting Harpies. The winged heroes, the Boread, pursued the Harpies to the Strophades (`Islands of Turning'), where they were turned back, repelled by Iris. This eventful 'turning' may have resulted in the islands' name. They succeeded in driving away the monsters but did not kill them, as requested by Iris, who promised that Phineas would not be bothered by the harpies again. As thanks, Phineas told the Argonauts how to pass the Symplegades.

According to Hesiod

Hesiod

Hesiod was a Greek language oral poet, his date is uncertain but leading scholars agree that Hesiod lived in the latter half of the Eighth-century BCE....
's Theogony

Theogony

The Theogony is a poem by Hesiod describing the origins and genealogy of the polytheism of the ancient Greeks, composed circa 700 BC....
, Iris is the daughter of Thaumas

Thaumas

In Greek mythology, Thaumas was a sea god, son of Pontus and Gaia . He married an Oceanid, Electra, and was the father of the Harpies and Iris , the goddess of rainbows and messenger of the gods. Thaumas was also the name of a centaur....
and the ocean nymph

Nymph

In Greek mythology, a nymph is any member of a large class of mythological entities in human form. They were typically associated with a particular location or landform....
Electra

Electra

In Greek mythology, Electra was an Argosian princess and daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra, and was a sibling to sisters Iphigeneia, Chrysothemis, and brother Orestes....
, an Oceanid

Oceanid

In Greek Mythology and Roman mythology, the Oceanids were the three thousand daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys . One of these many daughters was also said to have been the consort of the god Poseidon, typically named as Amphitrite....
. Her sisters are the Harpies, Aello

Aello

Aello in Greek mythology was one of the Harpy sisters who would abduct people and torture them on their way to Tartarus. Her names are:*Aello , "she of the whirlwind"...
and Ocypete

Ocypete

Ocypete was one of the three Harpy in Greek mythology. She was also known as Ocypode or Ocythoe ....
. Iris is married to Zephyrus, who is the god of the west wind. Their son is Pothos

Pothos (mythology)

In Greek mythology Pothos was a son of Zephyrus and Iris . His brothers were Himeros and Anteros. Pothos longed towards the unattainable goal of being one of Aphrodite's Erotes....
(Nonnus

Nonnus

Nonnus , was a Greek language epic poet. He was a native of Panopolis in the Egyptian Thebaid, and probably lived at the end of the 4th or early 5th century....
, Dionysiaca). In some records she is a sororal twin to the Titaness Arkhe (arch), who flew out of the company of Olympian gods to join the Titans as their messenger goddess during the Titanomachy

Titanomachy

In Greek mythology, the Titanomachy, or War of the Titans , was the ten-year series of battles fought between the two races of deities long before the existence of mankind: the Titan , fighting from Mount Othrys, or Mount Etna and the Twelve Olympians, who would come to reign on Mount Olympus ....
, making the two sisters enemy messenger goddesses. Iris was said to have golden wings, whereas Arkhe had iridescent ones. She is also said to travel on the rainbow while carrying messages from the gods to mortals. During the Titan War

Titanomachy

In Greek mythology, the Titanomachy, or War of the Titans , was the ten-year series of battles fought between the two races of deities long before the existence of mankind: the Titan , fighting from Mount Othrys, or Mount Etna and the Twelve Olympians, who would come to reign on Mount Olympus ....
, Zeus tore Arkhe's iridescent wings from her and gave them as a gift to the Nereid Thetis

Thetis

Silver-footed Thetis , disposer or "placer" , is encountered in Greek mythology mostly as a sea nymph, one of the fifty Nereids, daughters of the ancient one of the seas with shape-shifting abilities who survives in the historical vestiges of most later Greek myths as Proteus ....
at her wedding, who in turn gave them to her son, Achilles, who wore them on his feet. Achilles was sometimes known as podarkhes

Achilles

In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greeks hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad, which takes for its theme ; the Wrath of Achilles....
, or "wing-footed with Arkhe's wings". Not much is written about Iris' twin sister.

According to the Dionysiaca of Nonnos, Iris' brother is Hydaspes (book XXVI, lines 355-365).

In Euripides

Euripides

Euripides was the last of the three great tragedy of classical Athens . Ancient scholars thought that Euripides had written ninety-five plays, although four of those were probably written by Critias....
' play Heracles, Iris appears alongside Madness

Madness

Madness may refer to:*Insanity, or madness, a semi-permanent, severe mental disorder typically stemming from a form of mental illness*Madness , an English ska band...
, cursing Heracles

Heracles

In Greek mythology, Heracles or Herakles meaning "glory of Hera", or "Glorious through Hera" Alcides or Alcaeus " was a hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus....
with the fit of madness in which he kills his three sons and his wife Megara

Megara (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Megara was the oldest daughter of Creon, king of Thebes, Greece. In reward for Heracles' defending Thebes from Orchomenus in single-handed battle, Creon offered his daughter Megara to Heracles and he brought her home to the house of Amphitryon....
.

Epithets

Iris had numerous poetic titles and epithets, including Chrysopteron (Golden Winged), Podas ôkea (swift footed) or Podênemos ôkea (wind-swift footed), and Thaumantias or Thaumantos (Daughter of Thaumas, Wondrous One). Under the epithet Aellopus she was described as swift-footed like a storm-wind. She also watered the clouds with her pitcher, obtaining the water from the sea.

Representation

Iris is represented either as a rainbow, or as a young maiden with wings on her shoulders. As a goddess, Iris is associated with communication

Communication

Communication is commonly defined as "the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs...",, 1: an act or instance of transmitting and 3 a: "a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or beha...
, messages, the rainbow

Rainbow

Derivations and portrayals

The word iridescence
Iridescence

Iridescence is an optical phenomenon in which hue changes with the angle from which a surface is viewed. Iridescence may be easily seen in soap bubbles and butterfly wings....
is derived in part from the name of this goddess.

The 7 Iris
7 Iris

'7 Iris' is a large main belt asteroid. Among S-type asteroids it ranks fifth in geometric mean diameter after 15 Eunomia, 3 Juno, 29 Amphitrite and 532 Herculina....
asteroid
Asteroid

Asteroids, sometimes called minor planets or planetoids, are small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun, smaller than planets but larger than meteoroids....
is named after the messenger.

"Arco iris" and "arco-íris" are the words for "rainbow" in Spanish
Spanish language

Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....
and Portuguese
Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and Portugal. It is derived from the Latin language spoken by the Romanization Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago....
, respectively.

In 1946, Iris was depicted on a 50-franc airmail
Airmail

Airmail is mail that is transported by aircraft. It typically arrives more quickly than surface mail, and usually costs more to send. Airmail may be the only option for sending mail to some destinations, such as overseas, if the mail cannot wait the time it would take to arrive by ship, sometimes weeks....
stamp in France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
. This was accompanied the same year by a 40-franc airmail stamp depicting a centaur
Centaur

In Greek mythology, the centaurs are a race of creatures composed of part human and part horse. In early Attica Pottery of ancient Greece, they are depicted with the torso of a human joined at the waist to the horse's withers, where the horse's neck would be....
shooting an arrow into the sky.

Iris appears in the Disney movie Fantasia
Fantasia (film)

Fantasia is a 1940 in film List of animated feature-length films produced by Walt Disney, and is the third film in the List of Disney theatrical animated features#official canon....
at the end of the segment featuring the Pastoral Symphony by Beethoven.

Iris is the most powerful summon from the video game Golden Sun: The Lost Age
Golden Sun: The Lost Age

Golden Sun: The Lost Age, released in Japan as is the second installment of a series of console role-playing game video games developed by Camelot Software Planning and published by Nintendo....
.

Iris is the name of an important non-playable character in the video game Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals
Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals

Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals is an Console role-playing game game with puzzle elements developed by Neverland Co., Ltd. and published in Japan in 1995 in video gaming by Taito Corporation, and in North America and Europe in 1996 in video gaming by Natsume Co., Ltd and Nintendo respectively, for the Super Nintendo video game console....
. In addition to being a messenger between the titular Sinistrals (Gods of the planet Estpolis) and the main character, there exist in the world Iris Treasures which are said to shine with all the colors of the rainbow.

The manifestation of the "Iris" shares many characteristics to Lao Tzu's ("pragmatic") theories of perception in his book, the Tao Te Ching
Tao Te Ching

The Tao Te Ching or Dao De Jing , originally known as Laozi or Lao tzu , is a Chinese classic text. Its name comes from the opening words of its two sections: ? d?o "way," Chapter 1, and ? d? "virtue," Chapter 38, plus ? jing "classic." According to tradition, it was written around the 6th century...
.

Irisianium is being goddess like and graceful towards others.

External links

(English translation in the )
(English translation in the )
(English translation in the )
IRIS Goddess of the Rainbow & Messenger of the Gods
by Carlos Parada, author of Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology
Strophades Inss.