Iris: the Greek Goddess

In Homer’s epic poem the Iliad, gods and goddesses play an important role in influencing the lives of humans, and Athena is an important part of the war. The goddess Athena is written mostly as a mortal, where she signifies the personification of war. Both sides of the war know that with Athena, they will not lose. This is probably why she is the most significant minor character. Athena is the most significant minor character because she is brave, wise, and she is a warrior. Athena plays a significant role in the unfolding drama, because both the Greeks and the Trojans know that her favor, they cannot be defeated.

Together, the two patriarchal figures conspire to kidnap and force Persephone to marry Hades. This is done behind Demeter’s back, intentionally removing her from her role as mother. Their actions directly diminish or outright remove the will of Demeter, a symbol of women in Greek culture (The Homeric Hymn to Demeter 29-30). This theme of a removal of female autonomy is mirrored later in the text when Hades tricks Persephone into eating pomegranate seeds. This action is a deliberate attempt to remove Persephone’s ability to choose for herself, condemning her to spend the winter months in the underworld with him. Not only does this subjugate Persephone to Hades’ will, but it also lends justification to the subjugation of women by men (372-400). By removing the sovereignty of the female mind, the myth promotes male authority.

Iris was the Goddess of the Rainbow and a messenger of the gods, in the Iliad, the only messenger.

Demeter is very angry at Zeus for giving Persephone to Hades to be his wife and queen of the underworld in the Hymn and Zeus is playing the role of someone who is powerful that has made a mistake. To rectify his mistake, Zeus tries to appease Demeter by sending Iris to try to talk some sense into her. The next step he takes is to send all of the gods to her, but she is not able to be consoled. Following these attempts, Zeus decided to send Hermes to the underworld to tell Hades to send Persephone back to them (Nagy: 314-39) While Zeus is playing the forgetful god that is trying to rectify his mistake, he is also playing the powerful god that Zeus is famously known to be as he himself never actually goes on any of the journeys to see Demeter or Hades. Rather than going himself, he displays his power by sending everyone else to do his errands. The only gods in the story that even make decisions on their own are Zeus, Demeter, Hades, and Hekate, but Zeus is shown controlling all of the other gods. Even Hades is being controlled by Zeus to some degree when Zeus sends Hermes to the underworld to tell Hades to allow Persephone to come back to them. In Hesiod’s Theogony, Zeus is given the title of being the most important god, as well as a king of the gods. Zeus’s defining line in Theogony is when he is

In the Demeter and Persephone myth, Demeter is represented as a quite powerful goddess of nature, she possess the ability to bring down her full wrath and vengeance among mankind when she threats Zeus to get her daughter back. The Greeks recognized women’s ultimate connection to the earth and the power that arose from it however they also display significant amounts of an inferiority complex towards women. While the Greeks exemplify their fear towards the powerful Demeter they turn the tables and force their controlling views onto Persephone and she then becomes a rag doll and taken against her will. Persephone represents the beauty of nature and how the Greeks saw nature as two sided, both good and bad. Hades represented death and decay while Persephone represented vitality and life. However, they were threatened by woman’s connection nature and the power to create new life, similarly to Demeter’s connection with growing new crops both represent birth and regeneration. Even though Demeter did have control over whether or not mankind would starve it would not make a difference since Persephone still ate that pomegranate seed and was forced to go back to the underworld. This poses the idea that men had to control women as men had to control nature, similarly to the Norse Mythology. However the Greeks unlike the Norse recognized women’s power but are

Her sadness was shown to Helios and he told her the truth of her daughter. She was furious and said that zeus would be angry aswell but actually zeus agreed to the union from the start. She Then told zeus she would never again give harvest to people until she got her daughter. Zeus the became worried he didn't want his people to starve I f they did they wouldn't worship him anymore. He then sent Hermes to sort things out for him. But once he got there he saw Persephone Hades sitting on a couch and by then Persephone began to fall for Hades as well. Then he saw Persephone eat six pomegranate seeds and then he realized he was too late. Hermes then persuaded Hades to let her go but Hades said for six months of every year she was to be with him and the other six she could be with her mother. It was agreed and now every spring Persephone is with Demeter and during winter she is with Hades. So now today when fall comes and the weather becomes colder Persephone is in the underworld while Demeter is on earth alone. And when spring comes Persephone is home with her mother to bring us

     Hades is one of the brothers of Zeus. He is the unlucky one who got to rule the underworld. He is cruel and unforgiving. Only two have ever gone to Hades domain and returned, Hercules and Odysseus. Hades fell in love with Zeus’s daughter and devised a plan to abduct her. With Zeus’s help they succeeded in the capture of Persephone. Her mother Demeter was so enraged she cursed the Earth. She continued the curse even after she was released. It was only after her mother Rhea was allowed to see her that she let the Earth prosper (message).

In the myth “Persephone”, as retold by Anne Terry White, Hades falls instantly in love with the Goddess of harvest and takes her to the underworld with him. Have is all the sudden alarmed by the heaven, fire breathing beasts that had been buried underground, so he comes up to the land. Anthradite, Goddess of love, spots Hades and commands her son, Eros, to shoot with an arrow of love, hoping it would make Hades release the beasts kindly. Hades suddenly gets shot and his heart slowly begins to soften. Suddenly, in the distance, Hades sees Persephone, goddess of harvest, gracefully working in the meadows and he instantly falls in love with her. As a result, he decides to practically kidnap he and takes her down to the underworld with him.

“Go in peace” she replied, “and be happy in your daughter; I have lost mine.” (Bulfinch’s Mythology, pg 54, para 1). The farmer and his daughter sat with Demeter and cried with her. They invited her to stay for the night and introduced her to the sick son of the farmer. Demeter healed the boy and tried to make him immortal, but was stopped by the farmer’s wife. Demeter left the farm still searching for Persephone. Demeter came across a river nymph that knew what happened to Persephone. She dared not to tell, because she fears Hades. The nymph did give Demeter the girdle that Persephone dropped. Demeter sure her daughter was dead blamed the earth. Blaming the earth Demeter stopped fertilizing the land. The cattle died, the crops weren’t growing, there was too much sun and rain. Seeing this the nymph told the goddess what she saw. The goddess Demeter heard this and rode her chariot to meet Zeus. Zeus agreed to help,

Innocence, desire, and obsession are all facets in the story of Persephone and Hades. The arranged abduction broke a divine mother’s heart enough to affect the course of life on Earth forever. Persephone, or commonly called Kore meaning “the maiden,” was sought after by Hades, ruler of the underworld (Persephone 1). Hades enlisted Zeus’s help to abduct his daughter with Demeter, Persephone. Those events would become known as The Abduction of Persephone. This myth would become one of the most iconic and widely known in Greek history because it would explain one of earth’s most important cycles, reinforce the idea that the gods and goddesses have control of the earth, and fostered an agrarian cult’s religious rites.

The Homeric Hymn to Demeter addresses the fate of Persephone is in the hands of others and is removed from freedom of choice as she is portrayed as a minor. In effect, it is symbolic of the power family holds as the actions of her mother, her father Zeus and her husband Hades determine her path. The text accustoms nickname Persephone throughout the passage as the ‘Core’, the ‘Girl’, or ‘Virgin’. These nicknames assume her role as an underage girl not responsible for her life decisions. The Hymn begins with highlighting the role of the patriarch in a family Zeus as both the head of the family and the other gods who must defer to him as he arranges Hades to take Persephone against her will. As Demeter struggles with the mourn and loss of her child she begins to abandon her reproduction responsibilities and Persephone is ordered to go to the side of your dark robed mother. However, Hades persuades Persephone to eat pomegranate seeds, representing the loss of her innocence as it spiritually bounds her to Hades. Zeus accustomed to be acknowledges as the father of justice and good government rectifies the issue with the arrangement that Persephone remains with Hades however returns to her mother and the Gods for 2 thirds of the year. The Fate of Persephone portrays the common marriage cycle that pertained in Ancient Greece whereby it held the connotation of death for the maiden and submission and adaptation into their Fathers orders.

(AGG)The greek goddess Demeter had a daughter, Persephone, who was kidnapped by Hades, she was brought to the underworld, “Persephone was kidnapped by Hades and brought down to the underworld. Demeter searched desperately everywhere for the maiden but could not find her”(Cartwright), Demeter’s loss of her daughter gave her a goal, but she was impacted and she became sad because she did not have her daughter by her side every day.

Iris Was the personification of the rainbow in Greek Mythology, as well as messenger of the gods. She was also known as the goddess of the sea and the sky. She was the daughter of Thaumas and Electra, sister to Arke, Aello, Celaeno and Ocypete. She was married to Zephyrus, the god of the west wind, and had a son, Pothos.It was said that she travelled on the rainbow while carrying divine messages to the mortals. She uses her ability to Shapeshift when she delivers messages, turning into the image of the sender. Zeus sent Iris to summon Demeter back to Olympos when she went into self-imposed exile following the abduction of Persephone. But the goddess refused to heed the call.

When Zeus and Hades retuned almost everyone had forgotten about Perculus, Diminutive and Gargantuan. But little did Zeus know Perculus had become good friends with Aphrodite (Goddess of love and beauty), and Aphrodite was wondering where he was. When she went to ask Hades where Perculus went, he panicked and made up a ridiculous lie. Then she knew something was going on. She then decided to search Hades lair. There she found Perculus, Diminutive and Gargantuan tied to a ship being prepared to be exiled. She then untied them and she then had them explain what was going on. Form there she obviously sided with the three gods. Diminutive and Gargantuan ran away to an unknown place but Aphrodite and Perculus got revenge by taking away most of Zeus education and diminishing the love life for Hades, both acts preformed by the gods.

My name is Iris and I am the Greek goddess of rainbow. I am also called goddess of the sea and of the sky. My mother’s name was Electra, who was an Oceanid, and her father’s name was Thaumas, god of the sea. An oceanid is a sea nymph. A nymph is a spirit of the nature who was once imagined to be a beautiful maiden. Nymphs are usually inhabiting woods or a form of water like my mom did. Iris had many siblings too. Her sisters were the Harpies and Arke, who is her twin sister. The Harpies were female monsters in the form of a bird with a human face. I sometimes serve as the messenger of the goddesses alongside Hermes. Many people have said that I travel on a rainbow to deliver all my messages to everybody, everywhere. This is halfway true because sometimes I do use my rainbow, while other times I use the west wind sent from my husband, Zephyrus, god of the west wind. Zephyrus and I are happily married with our child, whose name is Pothos. Sometimes people get me confused with the Roman goddess Iris. The other Iris is a goddess of sadness and doom along with fatality. Later on in my life, during the Titans and Olympians war, I had sided with the Olympians while Arke, my twin sister, sided with the Titans. In the war, both Arke and I were being used as messengers.