"Who's Who in Classical Mythology, Routledge", Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica by Hesiod, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Iris_(mythology)&oldid=984616946, Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles having different image on Wikidata and Wikipedia, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 21 October 2020, at 03:07. Iris is married to Zephyrus, who is the god of the west wind. The rainbow is observed in the direction opposite to the Sun. Iris had numerous poetic titles and epithets, including chrysopteros (χρυσόπτερος "golden winged"), podas ōkea (πόδας ὠκέα "swift footed") or podēnemos ōkea (ποδήνεμος ὠκέα "wind-swift footed"), roscida ("dewy", Latin), and Thaumantias (Θαυμαντιάς "Daughter of Thaumas, Wondrous One"), aellopus (ἀελλόπους "storm-footed, storm-swift).

This personification of a rainbow was once described as being a link to the heavens and earth. In Greek mythology, Iris (/ˈaɪrɪs/; Greek: Ίρις Ancient Greek: [îːris]) is the personification and goddess of the rainbow and messenger of the gods. In general, however, in the popular piety…, Myth, a symbolic narrative, usually of unknown origin and at least partly traditional, that ostensibly relates actual events and that is especially associated with religious belief. This Goddess had no specific myths of her own or temples dedicated to her. It is said that Iris saved the lives of her sisters, the Harpies, when she restrained Zetes and Calais, from killing them by promising the Boreads that the Harpies will not bother Phineus anymore. Iris is also mentioned in the third “Homeric Hymn to Apollo” in connection with the delayed birth of Apollo and Artemis. There are no known temples or sanctuaries to Iris. Her sisters were the Harpies, and her husband was sometimes said to be Zephyrus. The water would render unconscious for one year any god or goddess who lied. Their son is Pothos (Nonnus, Dionysiaca). Iris' wings were said to be so beautiful that she could even light up a dark cavern, a trait observable from the story of her visit to Somnus in order to relay a message to Alcyone. In book 5, Iris, having taken on the form of a Trojan woman, stirs up the other Trojan mothers to set fire to four of Aeneas' ships in order to prevent them from leaving Sicily.

She was shown serving wine to the gods or escorting them to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. In Book 4, Juno dispatches her to pluck a lock of hair from the head of Queen Dido, that she may die and enter Hades. Updates? According to the Roman poet Ovid, after Romulus was deified as the god Quirinus, his wife Hersilia pleaded with the gods to let her become immortal as well so that she could be with her husband once again. Iris was both a personification of the rainbow and a divine messenger. p. 645; comp. Iris links the gods to humanity. A daughter of Thaumas and Electra, it seems that Iris was the only divine messenger in the earlier days, but at a later time, when Hermes assumed that function as well, she became Hera’s faithful servant.

Iris was one of the few Olympians who was able to travel to the underworld. She was a granddaughter of Gaea (the goddess of Earth) and the sea god Pontus.