Iridescent
Showing luminous shifting colours like a rainbow, from Iris, the goddess who personified the rainbow.
The Meaning of Iridescent
Iris was the messenger goddess who carried communications between the gods and humanity by travelling along the rainbow, which served as her bridge between Olympus and earth. She was the daughter of the sea-god Thaumas and the cloud-nymph Electra, and her golden wings shimmered with every colour of the spectrum. While Hermes served Zeus primarily, Iris was Hera's personal messenger, swift and faithful. She carried a pitcher of Styx water for oath-swearing and could travel to the underworld and back. Artists depicted her with wings that shifted between violet, blue, gold, and rose. In the seventeenth century, scientists needed a word for surfaces that display shifting, rainbow-like colours — like soap bubbles, oil films, and certain minerals. They coined "iridescent" from the Latin "iris," itself from the Greek goddess. The word also gives us the iris of the eye (the coloured ring) and the element iridium, whose salts display vivid colours.
Parents
Thaumas and Electra
Children
Pothos
Symbols
Fun Fact
The iris of the human eye, the element iridium, and the word iridescent all trace back to the same rainbow goddess — one deity naming three different scientific terms.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Iris
💭 conceptAnatomy and mythology
The coloured part of the human eye that controls the size of the pupil, named after Iris, the goddess of the rainbow, because of the wide range of colours it can display
Iridium
💭 conceptChemistry and mythology
A chemical element named after Iris, the Greek goddess of the rainbow, because its salts produce a striking variety of colours
Glaukos
💭 conceptmythology, perception
The gleaming grey-green color of the sea and the owl's eye — a color term that blurred the boundary between grey, green, and blue, associated with divine sight and sea-light.
Iris
⚡ godGoddess of the rainbow and divine messenger
The swift-footed goddess of the rainbow who served as Hera's personal messenger, bridging heaven and earth with her arc of colour.
Iris
⚡ godGoddess of the rainbow and divine messenger
Iris was the goddess of the rainbow and swift messenger of the gods — travelling between Olympus, earth, and the underworld.
Aphrodite
💭 conceptAstronomy and mythology
The planet Venus is named after the Roman equivalent of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty, because it is the brightest and most beautiful object in the night sky after the Moon
Venus
💭 conceptAstronomy and mythology
The second planet from the Sun and the brightest natural object in the night sky after the Moon, named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love identified with the Greek Aphrodite
Goddess of Love
💭 conceptLove, beauty, desire, fertility
Aphrodite governs romantic love and physical beauty, wielding an influence that even Zeus cannot resist.
Muses
💭 conceptNine goddesses of arts and sciences
Nine sister goddesses who inspired all forms of art, literature, and knowledge. Every poet, musician, and thinker invoked the Muses before creating.
Goddess of Night
💭 conceptNight, darkness, shadows, mystery
Nyx is the primordial goddess of night, so powerful that even Zeus avoids provoking her wrath.
Nectar
💭 conceptDrink of the gods
Nectar was the divine drink of the Olympian gods, served by Hebe and later Ganymede — the liquid complement to ambrosia.
Nyx
💭 conceptPrimordial goddess of night
The primordial goddess of night, one of the first beings to emerge from Chaos. So powerful that even Zeus feared her.