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Rainbow

Historical changes in experiencing a natural phenomenon

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Abstract

In classical Antiquity a rainbow appeared before the rain, while nowadays it can usually be seen after it has rained. Ancient Greeks and Romans were not happy when they saw a rainbow, although they also found it beautiful. This paper examines the ancient ideas associated with the rainbow and the way the import or perhaps admixture of Jewish and Christian ideas laid the basis of the European tradition for a phenomenon that appears after the rain, and that is supposed to make people happy.

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Notes

  1. This declaration can slightly modified by the fact that infrared rainbows are said to exist, i.e., rainbows that are unperceivable for the human eye. In this case a special camera substitutes for the human subject. The camera, however, must be put in the right place to take the photo of the optical phenomenon and to make it visible for the human eye in the form of a photograph.

  2. “Den Regenbogen nennt Homer, P 547, als ein Himmelszeichen, das den Menschen Unerwünschtes verkündet, während wir uns freuen, weil er anerkündigt, dass der Regen aufhört.” (von Willamowitz-Moellendorf 1931, vol. 1, pp. 263–264, n. 2.).

  3. Cic. Nat. 3.20.51.

  4. Θαύμας δ᾽ Ὠκεανοῖο βαθυρρείταο θύγατρα

    ἠγάγετ᾽ Ἠλέκτρην: ἣ δ᾽ ὠκεῖαν τέκεν Ἶριν

    ἠυκόμους θ᾽ Ἁρπυίας Ἀελλώ τ᾽ Ὠκυπέτην τε,

    αἵ ῥ᾽ ἀνέμων πνοιῇσι καὶ οἰωνοῖς ἅμ᾽ ἕπονται

    ὠκείῃς πτερύγεσσι: μεταχρόνιαι γὰρ ἴαλλον.

  5. παῦρα δὲ Θαύμαντος θυγάτηρ πόδας ὠκέα Ἶρις

    ἀγγελίην πωλεῖται ἐπ᾽ εὐρέα νῶτα θαλάσσης.

    ὁππότ᾽ ἔρις καὶ νεῖκος ἐν ἀθανάτοισιν ὄρηται

    καί ῥ᾽ ὅστις ψεύδηται Ὀλύμπια δώματ᾽ ἐχόντων,

    Ζεὺς δέ τε Ἶριν ἔπεμψε θεῶν μέγαν ὅρκον ἐνεῖκαι

    τηλόθεν ἐν χρυσέῃ προχόῳ πολυώνυμον ὕδωρ. (Theog. 780–785).

  6. Kossatz-Deissmann (1990, 746–747).

  7. Kossatz-Deissmann (1990, 758).

  8. Simon (1953, 62–65).

  9. et bibit ingens arcus, Georg. 1.380–81.

  10. Placita philosophorum. 894b8–9.

  11. Ad Aeneim V. 606.

  12. Iota 888.

  13. Ad Hom. Λ 27 és ε 29; also cf. Roscher (1890–94), vol. 2, 331, and Renel (1902, 70–71).

  14. Met. 4.479–480.

  15. For the relations of conceptual thinking and mythology see Kerényi (1939, 170).

  16. Not even religion studies in the twentieth century are always willing to accept this identity. A historical explanation supposes that one of the ideas developed after the other. E.g., the rainbow can be said to have been originally the path of gods through which they could enter the human sphere, and this idea could later gone through anthropomorphisation to become the messenger of gods (Renel 1902, 75–77).

  17. Verg, Aen. 5.609–10.

  18. Ov. Met. 11.589–90.

  20. Kossatz-Deissmann (1990, 742) discusses this identification as a fact.

  21. New York, MMA X.21.15. (G. R. 523); Beazley (1928, p. 6, n. 4).

  22. Moore and Bothmer (1976, 65): “In her right hand, Iris holds a staff. Since the top is not shown it is not certain if it is a kerykeion.”

  23. Kerényi (1959, 140–141).

  24. Eratosthenes, Catasterismi 12.

  25. 1.5–6.

  26. Nat. qu. 1.6.1.

  27. A sentence transmitted in Plato’s Cratylus also seems to raise positive associations, but editors tend to exclude it as a marginal note slipped into the text, and they are apparently right. It makes Iris’ name and function as a messenger connected with speech, i.e., the verb instead of One cannot know when that marginal note was written, but it may be a monument of a later than classical concept

  28. Anth. Lat. (Shackleton-Bailey) 543–554: Tristicha de arcu caeli.

    It is worthwhile quoting the poem no. 545 as a single sample:

    Clara sub aetheriis fulget Thaumantia proles

    nubibus, ut radiis pluuium sol attigit imbrem,

    et picturato caelum uelamine cingit.

  29. Frazer (1936, vol. 1, 258). Fishermen in Szeged, Hungary were reported to think that a rainbow causes aridity, since it sucks up waters from the earth. Beke (1934, 44).

  30. Renel (1902, 61).

  31. Bárczi (1941, 292).

  32. Horváth (1949, 51).

  33. See Renel (1902, 62–66) and Boyer (1987, 25).

  34. The belief of the man-eating rainbow appears also in the Hungarian folklore, and it was described already in the eighteenth century, see Beke (1934, 45). A rainbow was believed to be able to sniff up a man with his boat, if it found him on the water of Lake Balaton; this idea suggests that the rainbow was supposed to appear before rain, since it was improbable that someone be rowing after a rather dangerous tempest on the lake.

  35. Beke (1953, 459–462).

  36. Lázár (1896, 563).

  37. Renel (1902, 65) and Beke (1934, 45).

  38. Frazer (1936, vol. 3, 79).

  39. Renel (1902, 59), Boyer (1987, 26). For the Finno-ugric tradition see Horváth (1949, 51).

  40. Renel (1902, 60), Boyer (1987, 27–28).

  41. In addition to the references in note 40, see Goldziher (1876, 195).

  42. Utke (1996, 26). That author, being a professor of chemistry, is not really informed of ancient literature and ancient concepts of the rainbow; not only thinks he that rainbows appeared in the Antiquity after rain, but also that one finds Iris’ family tree in the Iliad and that “the Greek word for miracle is also thaumas” (25), which are all awkward mistakes.

  43. Otto (1958, 32).

  44. Czuczor and Fogarasi (1850, vol. 5, 1378). For other examples of this false etymology see Horváth (1949, 56).

  45. Horváth (1949, 57).

  46. Pesahim 54 a.

  47. Gen. 9.12–16.

  48. 43.1–17.

  49. 10.1–3.

  50. Gaster (1924, 98–99).

  51. Ketubof 77 b.

  52. Item cum loqueretur ad Noe de arcu in nubibus ad signum constituendum hoc uerbum saepissime repetit (Enarrationes in Psalmos 67.19); hoc signum testamenti quod ego ponam inter medium meum et uestrum: quod est, inter me et uos. (Locutiones in Heptateuchum 29).

  53. Saepe hoc uerbum ad aliqua connectenda atque pacanda, ne inter se dissideant, poni solet; sicut testamentum inter se et populum deo constituente, hoc uerbum scriptura ponit; nam pro eo quod est in Latino: inter me et uos, Graecus habet: inter medium meum et uestrum (Enarrationes in Psalmos 67.19).

  54. Renel (1902, 60–61).

  55. Ezekiel 1,28: uelut aspectum arcus cum fuerit in nube in die pluuiae hic erat aspectus splendoris per gyrum.

  56. Gregorius Magnus: Homiliae in Hiezechihelem prophetam 8: Et post Mediatoris aduentum, eo uirtus sancti spiritus in humano genere claruit, quo electos Dei et aqua baptismatis lauit et igni diuini amoris incendit. Quasi enim admixto colore aquae simul et ignis quidam arcus in nube ad propitiationem ponitur, cum Veritas dicit: „nisi qui renatus fuerit ex aqua et Spiritu sancto, non potest introire in regnum Dei. Qui arcus in nube est in die pluuiae, quia in dominica incarnatione, in effusione praedicationis ostenditur, ut ad ueniam corda credentium, Deo parcente, reuocentur. Nubem enim redemptoris carnem non inconuenienter accipimus.

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  1. Research Centre for Humanities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    Péter Hajdu

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Hajdu, P. Rainbow. Neohelicon 42, 437–450 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-015-0316-7

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