A goddess named “Iris” personified the rainbow in ancient Greek mythology. Most works of art depict her in the form of a beautiful rainbow or as a beautiful maiden. She had wings on her shoulders and usually carried a jug in one hand. Her name combined the Greek words for “messenger” and “rainbow” to signify her dual role. Some accounts describe her as one of the helpers of the goddess Hera. (Hera has associations with the sky.)
The ancient Greeks considered the goddess to be the female counterpart of Hermes. She served as a messenger on Mount Olympus. She used her jug to collect water from the ocean and carry it to the clouds. Some legends also claim that she used her jug to collect water from the River Styx, the gloomy river that separates the world of humans from the underworld. Many Greeks saw Iris as an important link between mortals and the realm of the gods.
Who was Iris?
She was the Greek goddess, or rather the personification, of the rainbow, and messenger of the gods. Daughter of Thaumas and Electra, she seems to have been the only divine messenger in the early days, but later, when Hermes also took on that role, she became Hera’s faithful servant. Her sisters were the Harpies, and her husband was sometimes said to be Zephyr.
The dual role of the rainbow – The meaning of its name
She was both a personification of the rainbow and a divine messenger. The ancient Greeks combined these two roles, since, as a meteorological phenomenon, the rainbow seems to connect heaven and earth, and, by extension, it was only fitting that its spirit should serve as a link between the gods and mortals. Equally natural was the choice of the goddess’s name: iris is the Greek word for “rainbow,” which still survives in English in words such as “iridescent,” defined by the Ecumenical Diaconia as “displaying colors like those of the rainbow.”
Parents and representation
She was the daughter of the dark Titan Thaumas and the Oceanid Electra and the sister of the Harpies. Described as “wind-footed” and “storm-footed,” as well as “golden-winged” and “dew,” like her male counterpart Hermes, Iris was often depicted with winged sandals (talaria) and a messenger’s staff (kerykeion).
Myths of the goddess Iris
The Original Messenger: Iris Compared to Hermes
Interestingly, although Hermes ended up being the more famous of the two messengers, it seems that she was the one who monopolized the role in the early days. In fact, in Homer’s “Iliad,” she is the only one who transmits messages from Zeus and, on one occasion, from Hera to other gods or mortals, giving Hermes the much smaller role of guide and guardian. A striking case can be found in the last book of the “Iliad,” when Zeus sends the goddess to inform Priam of his merciful decision regarding his son’s corpse, and Hermes to simply lead the Trojan king away without Achilles noticing.
During this period, the goddess is said to perform many vital tasks, such as informing Menelaus of Helen’s abduction or even granting Achilles’ prayers on her own authority and summoning the winds to light the funeral pyre of her friend Patroclus. However, in the “Odyssey,” the role of divine messenger is taken over entirely by Hermes, and Iris is never mentioned.
Iris’ loyalty to Hera
Later, poets attempted to differentiate between the roles of Hermes and Iris, making the former the messenger of Zeus (and most of the other gods) and the latter the loyal servant of Hera. Callimachus, a Greek polymath of the 3rd century BC, even goes so far as to compare Iris to one of Hera’s hunting dogs, in the sense that she was always seated next to Hera’s throne and her ears were pricked up at all times to receive her calls.
Therefore, on behalf of Hera, in Euripides’ “Heracles,” Iris orders the reluctant Lissa, spirit of frenzy and rage, to afflict Heracles with a fit of madness that leads him to murder his children. In Virgil’s “Aeneid,” she is explicitly depicted as Hera’s envoy.
Iris and her family
It is said that the goddess saved the lives of her sisters, the Harpies, when she restrained Zetes and Calais from killing them, promising the Boreans that the Harpies would no longer bother Phineus. However, she was not so protective of her fraternal twin Arce (a goddess of the faded rainbow who was invented later), as she sided with the Titans during the Titanomachy.
Probably because of the connection between the rainbow and rain, Iris was sometimes said to be the wife of Zephyr, the rainy West Wind. Some even say that she gave birth to none other than Eros, but if they did have a son, it was most likely only Pothos, one of the erotic gods.
Sources
She appears frequently in Homer’s “Iliad,” delivering messages to Helen, scolding the gods for meddling in the Trojan War against Zeus’ orders (especially Poseidon), or encouraging Achilles to retrieve the body of his dead friend Patroclus from the battlefield. He is also mentioned in the third “Homeric Hymn to Apollo” in connection with the delay in the birth of Apollo and Artemis.
