Iris

, a daughter of Thaumas and Electra, one of the Oceanides, me enger of the gods, and more particularly of Juno. Her office was to cut the thread which seemed to detain the soul in the body of those that were expiring. She is the same as the rainbow, and, from that circumstance, she is represented with wings, with all the variegated and beautiful colours of the rainbow, and appears sitting behind Juno ready to execute her commands. She is likewise described as supplying the clouds with water to deluge the world. Hesiod , Theogony , li. 266 .— Ovid , Metamorphoses , bk. 1 , li. 271 et seq. ; bk. 4 , li. 481 ; bk. 10 , li. 585 .— Virgil , Æneid , bk. 4 , li. 694 .――A river of Asia Minor, rising in Cappadocia, and falling into the Euxine sea. Flaccus , bk. 5 , li. 121 .――A river of Pontus.