The Greek gods of Olympus frequently used messengers to transmit their wishes and orders both to other deities and to human beings. In this work, the winged Iris stood out, also a symbol of the colorful arch that unites sky and earth after the storm.

Before Hermes, at the wish of his father Zeus, became a messenger of the gods, Iris was the one who fulfilled that task. The rainbow was the best symbol of union that, thanks to the messages it transmitted, It united the gods who inhabited the sky and the mortals who populated the Earth. Although Hermes made him lose prominence on Olympus, The goddess continued to play the role of messenger, especially for Hera, the wife of Zeus.

the Iris Goddess: an aquatic origin

Iris was the daughter of the sea god Thaumante and the oceanic Electra. He was born, therefore, into a family linked to the ocean, although from an early age the environment in which he developed best was not the waters, but the sky. Thanks to his golden wings, he could move through it at high speed. In that, and only in that, she resembled her sisters Aelo, Ocípete and Celeno, better known as the Harpies, winged maidens whose beauty was not in line with their terrible character: tormenting humans and kidnapping children and souls were their great passion.

Although Iris He is not part of the lineage of the Olympian gods, She was one of the first to join them. Thus, during the Titanomachy, the war that pitted the divine generation of the Titans against Zeus and his brothers, Iris joined their side. Her job even then was that of a messenger.

Another of her sisters, her twin Arce, carried out the same task, but for the Titans, so that, at the end of the war, Zeus threw her into the underworld as punishment. Sometimes, however, He returns to the sky like a second rainbow, a pale reflection of his sister’s.

Iris: the messages of the goddess

In the myths, Iris always appears in the role of messenger. Thus, in the birth of Apollo and Artemis, she is the one who goes to look for Ilithia, the goddess of happy births, to help Leto give birth.

His role in the Trojan War was outstanding. Zeus sent her to several of the heroes who participated in it: to Menelaus to tell him that his beautiful wife Elena had abandoned him for a handsome Trojan prince; to Achilles to urge him to arm himself to rescue the corpse of his beloved cousin Patroclus; to King Priam to comfort him and urge him to go see Achilles to recover the lifeless body of his son Hector…

Iris was also in charge of going to rescue the goddess of love, Aphrodite, when, in the middle of a battle before the walls of Troy, She was wounded by the spear of the Greek hero Diomedes.

The most disturbing myth related to Iris is one that is part of the cycle of Heracles, the Hercules of the Romans: according to him, The divine messenger, carrying out Hera’s orders, would have induced madness in the hero that led him to kill his wife and children.

The goddess Iris: the wife of the wind

Unlike other gods, Iris did not indulge in love affairs. Some authors, however, say that she was the wife of Zephyrus, the swift west wind that announces the rebirth of life that spring brings with it. From that relationship, Poto, the personification of love appetite, and Eros, the god of sexual attraction, would have been born. However, other versions make both children of Aphrodite.