Iris

Iris (in greco antico Ἶρις) o Iride o Iri o Taumantia o Taumantiade è un personaggio della mitologia greca.
Dea minore dell'Olimpo, messaggera degli dei e personificazione dell'arcobaleno.

Mitologia

Figlia di Taumante ed Elettra, è una sorella delle tre terribili arpie, Celeno, Ocipete ed Aello.
È citata nell'Iliade, in cui si legge, ad esempio, che Zeus padre dall'Ida... incitò... Iris dall'ali d'oro a portare in fretta un messaggio. e l'intera famiglia è citata da Esiodo: E Taumante sposò di Oceano dai gorghi profondi la figlia Elettra. Ed Iris veloce diè questa alla luce, con Occhipete e Procella, le Arpie dalle fulgide chiome, che a pari erano a volo coi soffi del vento e gli uccelli, sopra le veloci penne
A differenza di Ermes, la "veloce" Iris non appartiene al culto ellenico, ma solo al mito, quindi era un personaggio mitologico, non venerato dal popolo.
È vestita di "iridescenti" gocce di rugiada ed è proprio per la sua luminosità di colore variabile che la membrana dell'occhio si chiama "iride".

Compito

Il compito specifico della dea Iride era quello di annunciare agli uomini messaggi funesti, dal momento che era Hermes il dio che portava messaggi propizi da parte degli dèi. Iride svolge il suo compito di messaggera grazie a grandi ali d'oro con le quali vola rapida a portare gli ordini di Zeus.

Guerin Pierre Narcisse - Morpheus and Iris 1811

Iris

In Greek mythology, Iris (/ˈaɪrɪs/; Greek: Ἶρις Ancient Greek: [îːris]) is the personification and goddess of the rainbow and messenger of the gods.

Biography

According to Hesiod's Theogony, Iris is the daughter of Thaumas and the Oceanid Electra, and the sister of the Harpies: Aello and Ocypete. During the Titanomachy, Iris was the messenger of the Olympian Gods, while her twin sister Arke betrayed the Olympians and became the messenger of the Titans. She is the goddess of the rainbow. She also serves nectar to the gods and goddesses to drink. Iris is married to Zephyrus, who is the god of the west wind. Their son is Pothos (Nonnus, Dionysiaca). According to the Dionysiaca of Nonnos, Iris' brother is Hydaspes (book XXVI, lines 355-365).
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.

Epithets

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). She also watered the clouds with her pitcher, obtaining the water from the sea.

Mythology

Messenger of the gods

In some records Iris is a sororal twin to the Titaness 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 was said to have golden wings, whereas Arke had iridescent ones. She is also said to travel on the rainbow while carrying messages from the gods to mortals. During the Titan War, Zeus tore Arke's iridescent wings from her and gave them as a gift to the Nereid Thetis at her wedding, 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.
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 an 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 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 Apollo and his twin sister Artemis, all the goddesses were in attendance except for two, Hera and Ilithyia, 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 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 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.

Cult

There are no known temples or sanctuaries to Iris, and while she is frequently depicted on vases and in bas-reliefs, no statues are known to have been made of Iris during the antiquity.
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 that the Delians offered cakes, made of wheat, honey and dried figs, as offerings to Iris.

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's wings were said to be so beautiful that she could even light up a dark cavern, a trait observable from in the story of her visit to Somnus in order to relay a message to Alcyone.
Though 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.

Iris Carrying the Water of the River Styx to Olympus for the Gods to Swear By, Guy Head, c. 1793 - Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Iride in un affresco di Luca Giordano
1684-1686

Iris, Messenger of the Gods by Auguste Rodin, bronze, modeled 1891, cast number and date unknown, property of Iris Cantor

Hiart - Opera propria

Kupferstich (1795) von Tommaso Piroli (1752 – 1824) nach einer Zeichnung (1793) von John Flaxman (1755 – 1826).

H.-P.Haack 09:46, 13 May 2008 (UTC) - Antiquariat Dr. Haack Leipzig

Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun - The Princess von und zu Liechtenstein as Iris 1793

Kupferstich (1795) von Tommaso Piroli (1752 – 1824) nach einer Zeichnung (1793) von John Flaxman (1755 – 1826).

H.-P.Haack - Antiquariat Dr. Haack Leipzig

Charles-Joseph Natoire, Allégorie à la naissance de Marie-Zéphirine de France en 1750 (1750)

Kupferstich (1795) von Tommaso Piroli (1752 – 1824) nach einer Zeichnung (1793) von John Flaxman (1755 – 1826).

H.-P.Haack - Antiquariat Dr. Haack Leipzig

Detail of: The Iris: an Illuminated Souvenir

Lippincott, Grambo & Co. - The Iris: an Illuminated Souvenir for MDCCCLII, Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co., = 1852

Stamp of Greece, 25 Lepta issue 1911, model for the ultramarine colour in Yvert Catalog.

Jacquesverlaeken - Opera propria

Antonio Palomino - Alegoría del Aire, 1700

Winged female figure with a caduceus (Iris or Nike), pouring a libation to Apollo holdinh his kithaira. Detail from an Attic red-figure pelike, middle of 5th century BC. From Agrigento, Sicilia.

Providence Painter - Marie-Lan Nguyen (User:Jastrow), 2008-04-11

Crono e Rea assistita da Iride, affresco, quarto stile, c. 65 d. C., da modello di età classica. Da Pompei, Casa del Poeta tragico. Napoli, Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Luciano Pedicini, Napoli)

François Lemoyne - Junon, Iris et Flore

anni '20 del XVIII sec.

The ancient Greeks conceived of their messenger gods-divinities who carried messages to other gods or humans-as winged, alluding to their swiftness and their ability to go anywhere. Iris and Hermes were the main messenger gods in Greek mythology; Iris primarily served Zeus and Hera, the king and queen of the gods. This small oil container bears a rare representation of both messengers together.

Greek - Black-Figure Lekythos with Hermes and Iris

Anonimo (Grecia) - Walters Art Museum

500 circa a.C.

Grèce - Série courante de 1913-24 Type "Iris" - litho - Yvert 198B

Th. McDonald - Opera propria

Hera suckling the baby Heracles at her breast, surrounded by Aphrodite and Eros (not visible here), Athena (on the left), Iris (on the right) and a woman, perhaps Alkmene (not visible here). Detail from an Apulian red-figure squat lekythos, ca. 360-350 BC. From Anzi.

Hera, Athena and Iris in the Trojan War (Attributed to Jacques Réattu)
XVIII sec.

Iris (tiré d'un vase antique). Illustration de "Histoires des météores", p. 301

Jean Edouard Dargent - Gallica 1870

René-Antoine Houasse - Morpheus Awakening as Iris Draws Near, 1690

Iris. Copia de yeso. El original, realizado entre el 438 y el 432 a. C., se encuentra en el Museo del Louvre de París, Francia. Gipsoteca de la Universidad de Sevilla. Andalucía, España.

Iris au bain

François Lemoyne 1731

Iris and Phoebus, after Falero; with Iris resting on clouds at centre, her left hand to her breast, the other reaching out to Phoebus who stands on his chariot at left. 1885 Photogravure printed in orange, on chine collé
Luis Ricardo Falero - Laurencin Estampes et Dessins

Iris, Attic lekythos in Six's technique (superposed colours). From Tanagra.

tra il 500 e il 490 circa a.C.

Iris. West pediment N, Parthenon, ca. 447–433 BC.

Unknown, under supervision of Pheidias

Iris.

Illustrated by Engravings on Wood. - A Smaller Classical Mythology: With Translations from the Ancient Poets, and Questions Upon the Work by William Smith. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1882. P.23

Iris 1843

Jacob de Backer - The goddess Iris saves Dido with the help of favorable winds from the sea

tra il 1560 e il 1590

Karoline von Manderscheid-Blankenheim, princess of Liechtenstein (1768-1831), as "Iris"

Michel Corneille the Younger - Iris and Jupiter

1701

Part of the central section-East frieze-Elgin Marbles-British Museum

Punishment of Ixion: in the center is Mercury holding the caduceus. On the right is Juno on her throne, and behind her Iris stands and gestures. On the left is Vulcanus (blond figure) manning the wheel, with Ixion already tied to the wheel. Nephele sits at Mercury's feet. Roman fresco from the eastern wall of the triclinium in the Casa dei Vettii ("House of the Vetii", VI 15, 1) in Pompeii, Fourth Style (60-79 AD).

Salmoneus wielding a sword and a thunderbolt-like thingy. He just broke the chains that contained him, the madman, and acts like Zeus. To his left is Iris, to the right his astonished wife. Attic red-figure column crater, first half of the 5th century BC. Now in the Chicago, Art Institute 1889.16. This painting was first published by Ernest Arthur Gardner (1899) and attributed as Athamas in madness. In 1903 Carl Robert corrected this interpretation to Salmoneus.Anonimo - American Journal of Archaeology vol 3 (1899), p. 332 pl. IV

The tempest : a comedy Year: 1901 (1900s) Authors: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 Bell, Robert Anning, 1863-1933 Subjects: Fathers and daughters Political refugees Shipwreck victims Magicians Islands Spirits Publisher: London : Freemantle & Co. Contributing Library: Dorothy H. Hoover Library, Ontario College of Art & Design Digitizing Sponsor: The Ontario College of Art & Design