AmberLou2 
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(2/1/04 1:38 pm)
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Iris
The ancient Greeks personified the rainbow as the goddess Iris, daughter of the Titans Thaumas and Electra. She was sister to the dreadful Harpies, monstrous hags with birds' bodies, but was as unlike them as possible. Despite their differences, she pleaded for her sisters' lives when the Argonauts threatened to kill them.
Iris herself was sweet and gentle and kind. She was the favourite handmaid of Hera, queen of the heavenly court on Mt. Olympus. She kept guard at the foot of Hera's throne, drew her bath, laid out her clothes and carried out all the other duties of a handmaid. She was also Hera's messenger, a feminine counterpart to Hermes (Mercury) and had shimmering wings to speed her flight. Homer calls her "fleet Iris of the Whirlwind Feet" and she travels so fast that all we usually see is the trail of her multicoloured passage across the sky.
In one hand Iris carries the caduceus, the herald's wand entwined by two snakes symbolizing the reconciliation of opposites. None of this may be visible though because Iris often adopts human guise when visiting mortals. She travels through air, sea or underworld because, having no enemies, nothing tries to bar her way.
Unless on some stern errand for Hera or Zeus, Iris is helpful and compassionate to all she meets, both human and divine. It was she who finally ended Leto's long and painful labour when giving birth to Artemis and Apollo by fetching the goddess of childbirth, even though it was her mistress Hera who was deliberately detaining that goddess to prolong Leto's suffering. She helped rescue Zeus' golden dog Pandareus from the Underworld. Some say that Eros, or love, was the child of Iris and the wind god Zephyrus, though it is more commonly believed that Eros was Aphrodite's child, or was born directly from the World Egg.
Among Iris' duties was that of leading the souls of dead women to the Elysian fields, so Greeks planted the purple Iris flower on women's graves. The Iris flower was dedicated to the goddess because it blooms in all the shades of the rainbow. The iris of the eye was so named for similar reasons.
Iris was connected to the land of the dead in another way. Hesiod's Theogony tells us that: "when strife and quarrel arise among the deathless gods, and when any one of them who live in the house of Olympus tells a lie, then Zeus sends Iris to bring in a golden jug the great oath of the gods' from far away, the famous cold water which trickles down from a high and beetling rock.
"The oath of the gods" was a draught of water from a spring connected with the gloomy river Styx on the borders of the Underworld. Any deity who breaks an oath toasted with this water must suffer a terrible forfeit. For a year they lie in a trance, unable to breathe or eat nectar and ambrosia, but fully aware of their need for it. Then for nine more years they are banished from Olympus and all its delights. "Such an oath, then, did the gods appoint the eternal and prieval water of Styx to be: and it spouts through a rugged place."
Iris' main temple was at Delos.
Text by Linda and Roger Garland from She - The Book of the Goddess
www.geocities.com/dragonp.../iris.html
Among the duties of the Greek Goddess Iris was that of leading the souls of dead women to the Elysian Fields. In token of that faith the Greeks planted purple Iris on the graves of women. Iris was the messenger of the gods and the personification of the Rainbow. The Greek symbolism for the iris comes down to us by word of mouth in the form of a myth that was old in Homer's day.
Between three and four thousand years ago an artist was commissioned (more likely commanded) to model in stucco on one of the walls of the great Minoan palace at Knossos a representation of the priest-king. When he finished the figure of the youth in low relief he painted around it a background of many iris.
A comparatively short time after Iris bloomed on Minoan walls it appeared sculptured in stone at Karnak in Egypt. Thutmosis III (1504-1450 b.c.) celebrated the conquest of a large slice of Asia Minor by having a garden built near one of his palaces to display some of the plants he had brought back from his campaign. He felt a number of these seemed exotic enough to be carved into stone on the great wall of the temple of Anon.
Leaping forward through time we know that the Fleur-de-lis as a conventional form long predated its association with the Kings of France. There are various legends of how the iris came to represent the French monarchy but most center around two historical incidents separated in time by six hundred years. Clovis who in 496 A.D. is said to have abandoned the three toads on his banner in favor of the fleur-de-lis. His Christian Queen Clotilda, had long sought to convert her heathen husband but he always ignored her plea. Then faced with a formidable army of Alamanni, the Germanic tribe invading his kingdom, he told his wife that if he won the coming battle he would admit her God was strongest and be baptized. He did win and the toads whose symbolism would be most interesting to know disappeared.
The second incident occurred in 1147. Louis VII of France had a dream that convinced him to adopt the purple iris as his device shortly before setting out for his ill-fated crusade. Thus the fleur-de-lis became the symbol on the banner of France for the next six hundred years. Or twelve hundred years if we take it from the time of Clovis that the iris became the symbol for a great nation.
The iris was so powerful a symbol of the French kings that the Revolutionaries in 1789 set out to totally obliterate it the symbol of the hated monarchy. It was chipped off buildings and torn from draperies. Men were guillotined for wearing a fleur-de-lis on their clothes or as jewelry. The revolution succeeded and the symbol of the fleur-de-lis is only a memory now and is considered merely a conventionalized ornament or decoration.
Cultivated by the Egyptians and according to Dioscorides both the Greeks and the Romans used the rhizomes for medicinal purposes and in perfumery. Pliny the Elder wrote of Iris cultivation and noted that the choicest varieties came from Silistria and Pamphylia. In the dark ages Charlemagne noted the culture of Iris in France and the Arabs grew them in Moorish Spain. The Iris bloom is the emblem of Florence, Italy. In nineteenth century Italy, the production of dried Iris rhizomes was almost a major industry. Three people could plant about 5,000 in one day. Three years later the rhizomes were harvested, skinned and dried in the sun. They were of major value to the Perfume industry. A large portion were used by well-known distillers in Florence but about 10,000 tons in 1876 were exported to other countries, including the United States.
Although Iris were mainly prized for the perfume made as described above they were also of major importance as medicine for the treatment of illness. The rhisotomi (root diggers) were the druggists of primitive Greece and even its doctors. Pliny stated that iris should be gathered only by those in a state of chastity.
During the Dark Ages monasteries treasured the few copies of manuscripts that were swept up by scholars and carried off to Constantinople when thousands of such books were destroyed with the fall of Rome. One of these continued in use until modern times. It was i. germanica. But it has lost its medical importance and iris now is relegated to nothing more than flavoring for toothpaste. Our own native iris was used for a long time for the treatment of dropsy an syphilis.
In Germany oRainbowrris root which is made from iris used to be suspended in beer barrels to keep the beer from going stale and in France it was hung in wine casks to enrich the bouquet of the wine. In England orris root was used to give the peculiar flavor to artificial brandies made there. In Russia, in czarist days orris root flavored a soft drink that was made with honey and ginger and sold on the streets.
From earliest times perfumes were used as an offering to the gods. Orris root when thrown on a fire gave off a most pleasant scent. And until the synthetic ionome was discovered a little more than 80 years ago all violet scented powders and perfumes were distilled from iris. It also had the quality of being able to strengthen the odors of other perfumed substances thus was valuable as a fixative.
For a long time orris root was responsible for making social interaction bearable. It was used as a perfume for linen and is mentioned in 1480 in the wardrobe accounts of Edward IV. Several pieces of dried orris root strung on a string would be plunged into the boiling water with the clothes. "Swete cloth" if so achieved could only have been linen. In those times people wore wool or if they were important silk,satin. or velvet. There were no dry cleaners then so "Swete cloth" underneath the clothes amd a great deal of perfume on top was the best to be done, since bathing was considered dangerous. Orris root also was important to the new high hair fashions that at one time towered two feet off the ladies foreheads. They were powered with orris root which was added as a perfume to flour or starch.. One of the complaints of the hungry peasants in France was that so much of the flour they needed for food went to dress the hair of the nobility.
The French revolution brought an end to the powered hair fashion not only in France but all over Europe. Modern chemistry has eliminated the need for iris as a medicinal drug and the coming of synthetics has replaced its necessity for perfumes and cosmetics. Now it is simply an ornament in our gardens. But for over a thousand years it served mankind first as a religious symbol and than as the ultimate frivolity.
The fleur-de-lys is the emblem for the city of New Orleans.
www.sfheart.com/iris.html
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