IRIS was the goddess of the rainbow, a messenger of the Olympian gods. She was later described as a handmaiden and personal messenger of the goddess Hera.

Iris was a goddess of both the sea and sky - her father Thaumas "the wondrous" was a sea god, and her mother Elektra "the amber" a shining cloud godddess. For the coastal-dwelling Greeks the rainbow's arc was most often seen spanning between cloud and sea.

Iris had no distinctive mythology of her own. In myth she appears only as an errand-running messenger and was usually described as a virgin goddess.

Iris was depicted in ancient Greek vase painting as a beautiful young woman with golden wings holding a herald's rod (kerykeion), and sometimes a water-pitcher (oinochoe), in her hand. She was usually shown standing beside Zeus or Hera, often serving nectar from a jug. As nectar-pourer Iris was indistinguishable from Hebe.

Her name had a clever double meaning, being connected with both iris, the rainbow, and eiris, a messenger.

PARENTS

[1.1] THAUMAS & ELEKTRA (Hesiod Theogony 265, Apollodorus 1.10, Hyginus Pref, Nonnus Dionysiaca 26.350)
[1.2] THAUMAS (Callimachus Hymn 5, Ptolemy Hephaestion 6, Ovid Met. 4.479, Vergil Aeneid 9.2, Cicero De Natura Deorum 3.20)
[1.3] THAUMAS & OZOMENE (Hyginus Fabulae 14)

OFFSPRING

[1.1] POTHOS (by Zephryos) (Alcaeus Frag 257; Eustathius on Homer 555, Nonnus Dionysiaca 47.340)