RAINBOW. - 1. THE RAINBOW IN THE BIBLE. - The phenomenon - called simply "bow" in the Hebrew text - is mentioned for the first time after the flood (Gen. 9:12-17). It is not said that it did not exist before; but then it was adopted by God, being pleasant to look at and a harbinger of fair weather, as a special "sign" of his mercy in the "covenant" by which he undertakes never to send the flood again.
Of the rainbow Ecclesiasticus invites us to consider the beauties, blessing the one who created it (43:12-13), and it uses it as a simile to celebrate the high priest Simon the Just (50:8). Ezekiel describes the reflections of the divine throne as a shining bow (1:23): a vision taken up again by the Apocalypse, which gives the rainbow the Greek name of "iris" (4:3; 10:1). Dante seems to have been inspired by it, explaining that the Son proceeds from the Father "as iris from iris" (Par., XXXIII, 118-19).
Giuseppe Priero
2. THE RAINBOW AMONG PRIMITIVE PEOPLES
The nature of the rainbow is conceived by primitive peoples in two diametrically opposed ways: some consider it as an object in direct relation with the Supreme Being, in which case its appearance is a good omen, without, however, its constituting an object of worship; for others, conversely, it gives rise to various personifications and deifications, in the sense that for the most part they see in it a malignant demon, harbinger of misfortunes and therefore to be appeased with appropriate sacrifices.
The objectification of the rainbow occurs among all those peoples who recognize and venerate a Supreme Being, that is, in the first place among the ethnologically most ancient peoples, with very rare exceptions. Some see in it the garment of the Supreme Being (Yuki and Kato in central California), others the hem of his mantle (Samoyeds in Siberia), others again some shining ornament of his (Kulin and Wiradyuri in south-eastern Australia), or an evident sign of his presence (Pygmies of central Africa), or else a bridge thrown between the earth and the Supreme Being (Andamanese), or also a clear sign of his benevolence and his love (Senapé Indians of North America and Pygmies of Gabon in western Africa). Peoples of a more specialized culture follow along the same lines, still venerating a Supreme Being, and accustomed to hold that the rainbow is his belt (Galla in Abyssinia), or his bow (Bantu), or a gift of the divinity (Nilotic peoples and Negroes of Nigeria). That it constitutes the road on which the Supreme Being descends to earth is held by the Negroes of the Congo; that, instead, it served for the descent of the first men is believed by the Negroes of the Slave Coast, of the Ivory Coast and of the Gold Coast, while the Tlinkit Indians of North America and the aborigines of Hawaii are convinced that it carries the souls of the elect toward paradise. And all of them interpret its appearance as a happy omen, which for some, such as the Masai and the inhabitants of Samoa, becomes even an expression of God's satisfaction with men. The rainbow is not, for this group of peoples, an object of worship, although it sometimes enters into the complex of ceremonies, as among the Yuki and Kato and among the Pygmies of Gabon, who are wont to take it as a perspicuous manifestation of the venerated Supreme Being.
The personification and divinization of the rainbow takes place among peoples of an even more recent culture. These sometimes conceive it as a man dwelling in the soil, who, having come out during the storm, goes off toward the sky (Aranda of central Australia); sometimes as the soul of an ancestor (Indians of Peru); most prefer to think of it as a python (Kikuyu, Ewe, Haussa, Yoruba, etc. in Africa, many tribes of South America, the Caribs, etc.), which they believe dwells underground or in termite mounds, or better still in the water. It is conceived as a vengeful and malignant demon, wont, in South America, to strike women, to spread diseases among the Caribs, to absorb every moisture in time of drought in order to ruin men (eastern Africa). In the myths of Australia, moreover, the great serpent of the rainbow is often the adversary of the Supreme Being. It is in general an object of worship, so much so that the Aranda strive to appease it by means of choreographic ceremonies, and the Haussa offer it a black bull.
For a long time there was a wish to present this latter conception of the rainbow among primitive peoples as typically unique and original. But the first attitude described by us is by now richly documented, and full chronological priority must be recognized for it, inasmuch as we find it clearly expressed and unique precisely in the ethnologically most ancient cultures. The fact is that the scanty exceptions (Semang of Malacca, some Pygmies of central Africa) are characterized as foreign elements imported from surrounding more specialized cultures.
BISL.: There exist no true monographs on the subject. The material is scattered in ethnographic works, in books of travel and in journal articles. E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Art and Custom, 2 vols., 1st ed., London 1871; C. Strehlow, Mythen.
Sagen und Märchen des Arandastammes in Zentral-Australien, 5 vols., Frankfurt 1907-20; P. Ehrenreich, Die allgemeine Mythologie und ihre ethnologischen Grundlagen, Leipzig 1910, pp. 141, 162; J. Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, X, Edinburgh 1918, p. 371; Chantepie de la Saussaye, Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte, 4th ed., Tübingen 1925; R. Karsten, The Civilization of the South American Indians, London 1926; P. A. Talbot, The People of Southern Nigeria, III, Oxford 1926, p. 963, 963; W. Schmidt, Der Ursprung der Gottesidee, VI, Münster 1935; VII, ibid. 1940; H. Baumann, Schöpfung und Urzeit des Menschen im Mythos der afrikanischen Völker, Berlin 1936; P. E. Worms, Religiöse Vorstellungen und Kultur einiger nordwestdeutschischen Stämme in fünfzig Legenden, in Annali Lateranensi, 4 (1940), pp. 213-82.
Michèle Schulien