Iris (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Iris (; ; , ) is a daughter of the gods Thaumas and Electra, the personification and goddess of the rainbow and messenger of the gods. Family. According to Hesiod's "Theogony", Iris is the daughter of Thaumas and the Oceanid Electra and the sister of the Harpies: Arke and Ocypete. During the Titanomachy, Iris was the messenger of the Olympian gods while her sister Arke betrayed the Olympians and became the messenger of the gods' enemy, the Titans. She is the goddess of the rainbow. She also serves nectar to the goddesses and gods to drink. Zephyrus, who  is the god of the west wind, is her consort. Together they had a son named Pothos, or alternatively they were the parents of Eros, the god of love, according to sixth century BC Greek lyric poet Alcaeus, though Eros is usually said to be the son of Ares and Aphrodite. According to the "Dionysiaca" of Nonnus, Iris' brother is Hydaspes. She is also known as one of the goddesses of the sea and the sky. 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 and the underworld. Mythology. Messenger of the gods. In some records Iris is a sister to fellow messenger goddess Arke ("arch"), who flew out of the company of Olympian gods to join the Titans as their messenger goddess during the Titanomachy, making the two sisters enemy messenger goddesses. Iris is said to travel on the rainbow while carrying messages from the gods to mortals. During the Titan War, Zeus tore Arke's wings from her and gave them as a gift to the Nereid Thetis at her wedding to Peleus, who in turn gave them  to her son, Achilles, who wore them on his feet. Achilles was sometimes known as "podarkes" (feet like [the wings of] Arke). Podarces was also the original name of Priam, king of Troy. Following her daughter Persephone's abduction by Hades, the goddess of agriculture Demeter withdrew to her temple in Eleusis and made the earth barren, causing a great famine which killed off mortals, and as a result sacrifices to the gods ceased. Zeus then sent Iris to Demeter, calling her to join the other gods and lift her curse; but as her daughter was not returned, Demeter was  not persuaded. According to the lost epic "Cypria" by Stasinus, it was Iris who informed Menelaus, who had sailed off to Crete, of what had happened back in Sparta while he was gone, namely his wife Helen's elopement with the Trojan Prince Paris as well as the death of Helen's brother Castor. Iris is frequently mentioned as a divine messenger in "The Iliad", which is attributed to Homer. She does not, however, appear in "The Odyssey," where her role is instead filled by Hermes. Like Hermes, Iris carries a caduceus or winged staff. By command of Zeus, the  king of the gods, she carries a ewer of water from the River Styx, with which she puts to sleep all who perjure themselves. In Book XXIII, she delivers Achilles's prayer to Boreas and Zephyrus to light the funeral pyre of Patroclus. Iris also appears several times in Virgil's "Aeneid", usually as an agent of Juno. 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. 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. 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. Juno heard her plea and sent Iris down to her. With a single finger, Iris touched Hersilia and transformed her into an immortal goddess. Hersilia flew to Olympus, where she became one of the Horae and was permitted to live with her husband forevermore . Other myths. According to the "Homeric Hymn to Apollo", when Leto was in labor prior to giving birth to her twin children Apollo and Artemis, all the goddesses were in attendance except for two, Hera and Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth. On the ninth day of her labor, Leto told Iris to bribe Ilithyia and ask for her help in giving birth to her children, without allowing Hera to find out. According to Callimachus, Iris along with Ares ordered, on Hera's orders, all cities and other places to shun the pregnant Leto and deny her shelter where she could  bring forth her twins. According to Apollonius Rhodius, Iris turned back the Argonauts Zetes and Calais, who had pursued the Harpies to the Strophades ("Islands of Turning"). The brothers had driven off the monsters from their torment of the prophet Phineus, but did not kill them upon the request of Iris, who promised that Phineus would not be bothered by the Harpies again. In a lesser known narrative, Iris once came close to being raped by the satyrs after she attempted to disrupt their worship of Dionysus, perhaps at the behest of Hera. About fifteen black-and-red-figure vase  paintings dating from the fifth century BC depict said satyrs either menancingly advancing toward or getting hold of her when she tries to interfere with the sacrifice. In Euripides' play "Herakles", Iris appears alongside Lyssa, cursing Heracles with the fit of madness in which he kills his three sons and his wife Megara. Worship. Cult. There are no known temples or sanctuaries to Iris. While she is frequently depicted on vases and in bas-reliefs, few statues are known to have been made of Iris during antiquity. She was however depicted in sculpture on the west pediment of Parthenon in  Athens. Iris does appear to have been the object of at least some minor worship, but the only trace preserved of her cult is the note by Athenaeus in "Scholars at Dinner" that the people of Delos sacrificed to Iris, offering her cheesecakes called "basyniae", a type of cake of wheat-flour, suet and honey, boiled up together. Epithets. Iris had numerous poetic titles and epithets, including "chrysopteros" ( "golden winged"), "podas ōkea" ( "swift footed") or "podēnemos ōkea" ( "wind-swift footed"), "roscida" ("dewy", Latin), and "Thaumantias" ( "Daughter of Thaumas, Wondrous One"), "aellopus" ( "storm-footed, storm-swift). 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 beautiful young maiden with wings on her shoulders. As a goddess, Iris is associated with communication, messages, the rainbow, and new endeavors. This personification of a rainbow was once described as being a link to the heavens and earth. In some texts she is depicted wearing a coat of many colors. With this coat she actually creates the rainbows she rides to get from place to place. 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. While Iris was principally associated with communication and messages, she was also believed to aid in the fulfillment of humans' prayers, either by fulfilling them herself or by bringing them to the attention of other deities.