Morpheus and Iris

By Rhea H. Boyden

Iris knows that Morpheus will fly from her, just as the winged Mercury had done before. She allowed him to remain in his sweet slumber for long enough. The truth had to be spoken. It was no longer in a dream that she saw him, but she caught him shocked and awake in the land of rainbows. Iris, who sits in the middle of the dream like a rock, conscious at last, that she is the rainbow. Morpheus, mercifully saw her colours and heeded them humbly. Her wings are weak in the ice of winter, but they have not been stolen from her as she had feared. As soon as the ice melts from them, she will fly again, far, far away from that wet land of dreams, leaving Morpheus to wear whatever face he pleases.

Image is the painting ‘Morpheus and Iris’ by Pierre Narcisse Guerin