Ways of Worship: Iris

Altar, Offerings, and Symbols

General Symbols: rainbow, caduceus, pitcher, sea, sky, clouds, rainfall, letters, water in general

Foods: figs, cakes, wheat, honey, cheesecake

Animals: all birds

Gemstones/Metals: opal, rainbow fluorite, rainbow quartz, titanium

Color: all colors of the rainbow, white, brown, black, pink

Scents: rain, sea, summer breeze, spring flowers

Prayers

Things to Pray for: your messages to be delivered, better communication, positive new endeavors, receiving messages, aided communications/messages to your deities, rain, luck, rainbows, safe travels on water or flight, hope, help with struggles

Prayer 1

Goddess Iris hear my plea

Across the air

And through the sea.

I am in need of your sweet blessings,

Energies and healings bring to me.

Goddess Iris I give thanks to thee.

As I will it so it be.

Prayer 2

Fleet-footed Iris, swift as the storm,

golden-winged goddess, I call out to you.

Daughter of Thaumus, ancient one of the sea,

and bright-lit Elektra of the thunderhead,

sister of the fearsome Harpies, I honor your might.

Iris of the rainbow, many-colored goddess,

handmaid and herald of deep-eyed Hera,

yours is a duty needful and grave;

messenger and courier, you speak with the voice

of all Olympus–the Trojans and the Argonauts

did tremble at your words. Harbinger of hope,

goddess of the new day, I pray to you.

Invocation

Goddess Iris, messenger of the Gods and Goddesses, hear my prayer.

Grant me peace and harmony helping me cope with all that comes my way.

Give me patience and temperance in all things I do.

Blessed Be

General Information

Iris is the Goddess of the Rainbow, sea, sky, and messenger to the Gods. She is depicted as one of the virgin Goddesses and was believed by the costal-dwelling Greeks to replenish the rainclouds with water from the sea. She was often described has Hera's personal messenger and one of her handmaidens. Her parents where Thaumas, a marine god, and Elektra, a cloud nymph. Iris has one child, Pothos, with her husband "The West Wind" Zephyros. Pothos is the God of sexual longing, yearning, and desire and was one of the winged love gods Erotes.

While Hermes is the better known messenger to the gods today, Iris used to be the main form of communication between the gods and mortals and the gods themselves. During this time, Hermes was given a much smaller role of guide or guardian. Despite many stories where Iris is the main focus somewhere between The Iliad being published and The Odyssey there was a switch between the two messengers as Hermes became the main focus and Iris was left to the footnotes or just never mentioned again.

Iris is seen in many classic myths and stories such as The Iliad and Virgil. In the Iliad she is the only god relaying messages for Zues and Hera to the other gods and mortals. She is the one who was sent to inform Priam of Zeus's decision concerning his son's body and who informed Menelaus of Helen's abduction. These where all small but rather vital roles in the story of the Iliad and the war. Possibly her largest role in the story, however, is when she autonomously granted Achille's prayer and summoned the winds to ignite his lover Patroclus funeral pyre.

She is also seen temporarily in the story of The Exile of Demeter (or as it's commonly known as the story of The Abduction of Persephone) where Zeus sent Iris to call the self imposed exiled Goddess Demeter back to Olympus after the abduction of Persephone.

Iris was also seen in the myth of the Twin Gods birth, Apollo and Artemis. In Callimachus she is described as being one of Hera's messengers, along with Ares, to threaten the cities from receiving Leto in the hopes that the other Goddess would be left with no one to deliver her children. Iris then reported the birth of the children to Hera and told her there was nothing more to do and went to sleep leaning upon Hera's throne, incurring the wrath of her mistress.

The only recorded cult of Iris was on "Hecate's Island" close to Delos where her worshippers would make offerings of cheesecake. She was also tasked with travelling to the Underworld to collect water to be used in sacred oaths. She has also generally been associated with the themes of winter, peace, protection, air, meditation, promises, and beginnings. She is often seen as representing hope and the calms after the storm.