Through this series of posts, we will explore flowers and plants of the ancient world that were connected in some way to Divinities, whether through symbolism, cult, mythology or, as in this case, through the name itself.
The iris is one of those flowers whose name still preserves an ancient connection between the natural world and mythology. In Greek, iris was also the word for the rainbow, and ancient writers explained the name of the flower through the remarkable variety of its colors.
Behind that name stands Iris, the Greek Goddess associated with the rainbow and with the transmission of divine messages. The connection between the Goddess and the atmospheric phenomenon was already recognised in antiquity. Cicero, in De Natura Deorum, refers to the rainbow itself as Iris and remarks that its extraordinary beauty gave rise to the tradition that Iris was the daughter of Thaumas.
This post explores the mythology of Iris, Her role as divine messenger, Her relationship with the rainbow, the surviving evidence for Her cult, and the associations of the flower that still bears the same ancient name.
In Greek texts Iris is constantly in motion, hears the prayers of men and reaches the powers of the wind. Wherever there is a distance to overcome or a message that must reach its destination, Iris may appear.
In the traditional genealogy, Iris is the daughter of Thaumas and the Oceanid Electra. Her sisters are the Harpies Aello and Ocypete. It is a family strongly connected with natural forces. Thaumas belongs to the marine lineage, Electra descends from Oceanus, while the Harpies belong to the imagery of wind, flight and speed. Iris emerges from the same complex of images, but with a different character. Her speed has direction and purpose: she moves in order to carry something from one place to another. She is described as “golden-winged”, “wind-footed”, “storm-footed”, or simply “swift”.
In the Iliad, Iris is one of the main figures through whom divine will is communicated and put into action. Zeus repeatedly sends Her to Gods and men, while at other times Hera entrusts Her with a task. Iris receives the message, crosses the necessary distance and delivers it.
In the Iliad, when Zeus wants to warn the Trojans of the Achaean advance, Iris assumes the voice and likeness of Polites, son of Priam, and speaks within the Trojan assembly. Homer first says that she made Her voice like that of Polites and then describes Her as having made herself like him. Iris can therefore adapt the form through which a divine message reaches its recipient rather than merely carrying words from one place to another.
Zeus also sends Iris to Priam to tell the old king that he must go to Achilles and ransom the body of Hector. Afterwards, Hermes is given a different task: he physically accompanies Priam through the Achaean camp and protects him during the journey. The episode shows that both Iris and Hermes can act as divine messengers.
One of the most significant episodes involving Iris is found in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo. Leto is attempting to give birth to Apollo on the island of Delos, but the birth cannot be completed because Hera keeps Eileithyia, the Goddess who presides over childbirth, away from her. Leto suffers for nine days and nine nights until the other Goddesses decide to send Iris.
The mission requires discretion. Iris must summon Eileithyia without Hera interfering and bring Her to Delos. She crosses the distance, speaks with Eileithyia and persuades Her to come. Once the Goddess of childbirth reaches the island, Leto is finally able to give birth to Apollo.
In this episode, Iris resolves a separation that prevents the birth from taking place: Eileithyia is absent, and Iris is the one who brings Her to Delos. The episode therefore gives a strong basis for associating Iris with movement, communication and the overcoming of distance. A broader connection with transition can be drawn from this role.
Iris carries authority without being the source of that authority. She may transmit the command of Zeus, but the command remains Zeus’.
An especially revealing passage appears in Hesiod’s Theogony, in the account of the Styx.
When a dispute arises among the immortals and one of the Gods is suspected of lying, Zeus sends Iris to the Styx. She must bring back, in a golden vessel, the water upon which the most solemn oath of the immortals is sworn.
To swear falsely upon this water brings a terrible punishment even upon a God. The connection is that the Goddess who carries words is also entrusted with carrying the substance that guarantees the most serious divine oath.
Communication, oath and truth therefore intersect in the same mythological figure. This does not make Iris a formal Goddess of truth, but it gives a clear basis for associating Her with the responsible transmission of the spoken word.
Much of Her activity takes place across boundaries and distances: Olympus and earth, sea and sky, Gods and men, speaker and recipient, Zeus and the Styx. Her epithets reinforce the same pattern through images of wind, storm, wings and speed. From these myths, Iris can reasonably be associated with communication, movement, transition, mediation, connection and the crossing of boundaries.
In the Cratylus, Plato has Socrates propose a connection between the name Iris and the Greek verb eírein, “to say” or “to speak”, suggesting that Iris received Her name because she is a messenger.
In the Theaetetus it is stated that θαῦμα (thaûma), is the beginning of philosophy and that whoever made Iris the daughter of Thaumas created an appropriate genealogy. Plato is playing with the similarity between Thaumas and thaûma, but the image is suggestive: wonder gives rise to Iris, while Iris is the bearer of messages, the passage allows a symbolic movement from wonder to inquiry, and from inquiry to expression and communication.
The most important surviving cultic testimony is preserved by Athenaeus, who quotes Semo of Delos. According to Semo, the Delians offered Iris the basyniai, preparations made from wheat flour, fat and honey, together with the kokkora, consisting of a fig and three nuts. The offering was associated with the so-called Island of Hecate in the area of Delos and Rheneia.
This testimony is particularly valuable because direct evidence for the cult of Iris is scarce. Her presence in Greek literature is far stronger than the surviving evidence for temples, priesthoods or festivals dedicated specifically to Her.
In Greek art, Iris is often represented as a winged young woman associated with the attributes of a messenger. A clear example is an Attic red-figure oinochoe dating to around 470–460 BC, now preserved at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Iris is shown crouching with a kerykeion, the herald’s staff, and wax tablets, both of which reflect Her role as a bearer of messages. In mythology, the kerykeion is especially associated with Hermes, whose staff later became known in Latin as the caduceus. Iris can also carry one because she performs the same function of a divine herald or messenger.
Pliny the Elder describes a stone called iris, similar in nature to crystal, which projects rainbow-like colours onto nearby surfaces when struck by sunlight, there isn’t however any other way to associate this stone with the Goddess. As a personal interpretation, I would associate the Goddess Iris particularly with Labradorite for its iridescent play of colour and its association with light, transition and messages, qualities that closely reflect Her role as the divine messenger who moves between Gods, humans and different realms carrying words from one to another, like the stone that can help bring messages from the unconscious mind to the surface facilitating understanding.
The iris plant had medicinal uses in antiquity, but this does not mean that the Goddess Iris had a recognised healing function. The properties of the plant and the functions of the Goddess should not be treated as interchangeable, however some other properties could be, interestingly, in nineteenth-century floriography, the iris flower was associated with the idea of a message. John Reid’s The Language of Flowers (1847) gives the iris the meaning “I have a message for you”. It’s not known if this connection was intentional, but this symbolism fits the mythology behind the flower’s name: Iris is a divine messenger in Greek tradition, likewise the flower came to represent the carrying or delivery of a message.