Rainbows in religion and mythology
Main article: Rainbows in mythology
The end of a rainbow.
A rainbow from horizon to horizon.
Rainbows can often be seen in the spray and mist coming from larger waterfalls,
as here at Takakkaw Falls, Canada.
A rainbow at the base of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River.The
rainbow has a place in legend due to its beauty and the difficulty in
explaining the phenomenon before the work of Descartes in the 17th century.
(Theodoric of Freiburg, however, had given a satisfactory explanation
in the 13th century.)
In Greek mythology, it is a path made by a messenger (Iris) between Earth
and Heaven.
In the Hebrew Bible, the rainbow is a symbol of the covenant between God
and man, and God's promise to Noah that He would never again flood the
entire Earth.
The Irish leprechaun's secret hiding place for his crock of gold is usually
said to be at the end of the rainbow - which, of course, one can never
reach.
In Chinese mythology, the rainbow was a slit in the sky sealed by Goddess
Nüwa using stones of five different colours.
In Hindu mythology, the rainbow is called Indradhanush, meaning the bow
of Indra, the God of lightning and thunder.
In Norse Mythology, a rainbow called the Bifrost Bridge connects the realms
of Ásgard and Midgard, homes of the gods and humans, respectively.
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Rainbows in literature
The rainbow has also been used in more contemporary settings, such as
the song "Over the Rainbow" in the musical film The Wizard of
Oz, and in selling Lucky Charms by alluding heavily to leprechaun mythology.
One of the poems of William Wordsworth goes:
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!…
However, the Newtonian deconstruction of the rainbow is said to have provoked
John Keats to lament:
Do not all charms fly
At the mere touch of cold philosophy?
There was an awful rainbow once in heaven:
We know her woof, her texture; she is given
In the dull catalogue of common things.
Philosophy will clip an Angel's wings,
Conquer all mysteries by rule and line,
Empty the haunted air, and gnomed mine –
Unweave a rainbow
In contrast to this is Richard Dawkins; talking about his book Unweaving
the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder:
"My title is from Keats, who believed that Newton had destroyed
all the poetry of the rainbow by reducing it to the prismatic colours.
Keats could hardly have been more wrong, and my aim is to guide all who
are tempted by a similar view, towards the opposite conclusion. Science
is, or ought to be, the inspiration for great poetry."
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