Iris (mythology)

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Iris on a lekythos of Diosphos Painter v to 500-490. Chr.
Zeus, Hera and Iris. Belly amphora by the Nikoxenus painter , around 500 BC Chr.
Fresco by Luca Giordano (1632–1705)

Iris ( Greek  Ίρις , rainbow ) is a deity in Greek mythology . It is the personification of the rainbow and, according to the physical conception of the Greeks of that time, can generate winds. In mythology she usually has the function of a virgin, winged messenger of the gods, preferably the goddess Hera .

myth

According to Hesiod she is the daughter of Thaumas and Elektra and sister of the Harpies and the Arke , with Alkaios of Lesbos she is the mother of Eros of Zephyr .

In Homer's Iliad she is referred to as messenger of the gods and performs this function in many ways for different gods: Zeus sends her to the Trojans to warn them; to Helena , that she might see the armies from the tower; Against Hera and Athene to prevent them from entering the battle; to Hector to bring him advice on how to fight Agamemnon ; to Poseidon to persuade him to withdraw from the fight; to Thetis in the sea to bring her to the assembly of the gods; and to Priam , so that he may free Hector's corpse from Achilles . Hera sends her together with Apollo to Zeus and secretly to Achilles without Zeus' knowledge. She also escorts Aphrodite out of battle without having received a corresponding commission, and acts of her own accord when she hears Achilles' requests and hurries to the wind gods to help him. In the Odyssey , Hermes and not she exercises the function of messenger of the gods. In this context, a Homeric hymn is noteworthy , in which she cannot induce Demeter to participate in the assembly of gods, but Hermes is successful with it.

Iris has a different function with Hesiod: If a dispute breaks out among the gods of Olympus , Zeus sends her out to fetch water from the river Styx in her golden cup . If a god perjures this water, he will be unconscious for a year. After that, further punishments await him, and he is excluded from the meetings, including nectar and ambrosia , for nine years .

From the Hellenistic onwards she was increasingly seen as Hera's personal messenger and servant. In the Argonautica of Apollonios of Rhodes she is the guardian of Hera and is charged with delivering messages to Thetis, Hephaestus and Aiolos for the benefit of the Argonauts . Here, too, she acts of her own accord when she arbitrarily intervenes in the fight between her sisters, the harpies, and the two Argonauts Kalaïs and Zetes . Sent by Zeus as punishment, the harpies stole the food from the blind seer Phineus . Kalaïs and Zetes came to his defense. After Iris had called the boreaders to their senses and swore on the waters of the Styx that the harpies would leave Phineus alone from now on, the persecuted and the persecuted abandoned each other across the Strofades ("Islands of Turning").

She is also in Juno's service with Virgil . On Juno's order, Dido, she cuts off a lock of hair, which is actually Proserpina's task , and thus detaches the soul from the spirit. She tries to persuade the Trojans to settle at Acestes and points out the opportunity to Turnus to conquer the Trojans' camp. But Jupiter also makes use of their services: He sends them to Juno so that they no longer support Rotus in the fight.

At Ovid she is explicitly referred to as Junos Botin ( nuntia Junonis ), but also has other tasks. She fills the rain clouds of the Deucalionic Flood with water, sprinkles Juno on her return from the underworld to cleanse them and almost sets Aenea's ships on fire. As a messenger asks Somnus about Alcyone to comfort, and convinces Hersilia it, with her husband deified Romulus to combine, making these the Goddess Hora is.

literature

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Web links

Commons : Iris  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hesiod Theogony 265 ff.
  2. ↑ Alcaios of Lesbos , fragment 327.
  3. ↑ Homer Iliad 15:144.
  4. ↑ Homer Iliad 2, 786.
  5. ↑ Homer Iliad 3, 121 ff.
  6. ↑ Homer Iliad 8, 398 ff.
  7. ↑ Homer Iliad 11, 185 ff.
  8. ↑ Homer Iliad 15, 158 ff.
  9. ↑ Homer Iliad 24, 77 ff.
  10. ↑ Homer Iliad 24, 143 ff.
  11. ↑ Homer Iliad 15:144.
  12. ↑ Homer Iliad 18, 166 ff.
  13. ↑ Homer Iliad 5:353.
  14. ↑ Homer Iliad 23, 198 ff.
  15. ↑ Homeric Hymn 2, 14 ff.
  16. ↑ Hesiod Theogony 782 ff.
  17. ↑ Apollonios of Rhodes Argonautika 4, 753 ff.
  18. ^ Apollonios of Rhodos Argonautika 2, 284 ff.
  19. ↑ Virgil Aeneid 4, 694, ff.
  20. ↑ Virgil Aeneid 5, 606 ff.
  21. ↑ Virgil Aeneid 9, 2 ff.
  22. ↑ Virgil Aeneis 9, 803 ff.
  23. ↑ a b Ovid Metamorphoses 1, 270 ff.
  24. ^ Ovid Metamorphoses 4, 480.
  25. ↑ Ovid Metamorphoses 14, 85.
  26. ↑ Ovid Metamorphosen 14, 829 ff.