Iris

Iris set out at Zeus’s command to fetch the water of Styx. She carried the water in a golden jar from far away, so that it could be used as the great oath of the gods. This oath was called upon when quarrels arose among the immortals and when a god who lived on Olympus denied the truth.

Styx had gained this honour after Zeus called the deathless gods to Olympus during his war against the Titans. She resolved to support him. Zeus promised that the gods who fought beside him would keep their former honours, while those whom Kronos had left without honours would receive them. Zeus then honoured Styx and made her the great oath of the gods.

A god who poured a libation of Styx’s water and swore falsely fell into a coma for a full year. During that time, the god could not take part in the councils or feasts of the immortals. After the first year, a harsher punishment followed. For nine years, the perjurer remained cut off from the deathless gods and could not join their councils or communal feasts. In the tenth year, the god returned to the gatherings of the immortals on Olympus.

After Iris had brought the water, Styx’s stream flowed back through the night and beneath the earth. The water remained a source of severe punishment for any god who broke an oath sworn by it.

Thaumas and Electra became the parents of Iris and Arke, two winged sisters. Electra was a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. Thaumas was a son of Pontus and Gaia. Through Electra, the sisters belonged to the line of Oceanus and Tethys. Through Thaumas, they belonged to the line of Pontus and Gaia. Their parentage placed them among beings linked with the air and the divine world.

Iris became the goddess of the rainbow and the messenger of the gods. Her rainbow appeared between the divine realm and the mortal world, and her office carried her between those two spheres. She held a place among the gods as their messenger. In one tale, she approached the Argonauts when they pursued the Harpies. She declared that the Harpies had performed their duties as the hounds of Zeus, so killing them would have been unlawful. She then swore that the Harpies would never approach Phineus again, and they departed for their den in Crete.

Arke remained Iris’s sister, and she later turned against the Olympians. Her opposition set her apart from Iris, who served the gods as their messenger. Arke’s cause was not given, and her conflict with the Olympians had no stated outcome. Her later circumstances also remained unknown. No separate parentage was assigned to her, because she shared Electra and Thaumas with Iris.

In another telling, Electra and Thaumas became the parents of Iris and the Harpies. Other tellings gave the Harpies different parents, but those alternatives did not make them the parents of Iris and Arke. The sisters therefore remained joined by their common parentage, while Iris belonged to the Olympian order and Arke opposed it.