Editing Rainbows in mythology (section)

== Rainbow deities ==
*In [[Mesopotamia]]n and [[Elam]]ite mythology, the goddess [[Manzat (goddess)|Manzat]] was a personification of the rainbow.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lambert |first=W. G. |chapter=Manziʾat/Mazziʾat/Mazzât/Mazzêt |chapter-url=http://publikationen.badw.de/en/rla/index#7497 |title=Reallexikon der Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen Archäologie |volume=7 |date=1980 |pages=344–346}}</ref>
*In [[Greek mythology]], the goddess [[Iris (mythology)|Iris]] personifies the rainbow. In many stories, such as the ''[[Iliad]]'', she carries messages from the gods to the human world, thus forming a link between heaven and earth.<ref>{{cite book |last=March |first=Jennifer R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v5jwAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA270 |title=Dictionary of Classical Mythology |date=2014 |publisher=Oxbow Books |isbn=978-1-78297-635-6 |pages=270–271}}</ref> Iris's messages often concerned war and retribution.<ref name=Lee>{{cite book |last1=Lee |first1=Raymond L. Jr.|last2=Fraser |first2=Alistair B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kZcCtT1ZeaEC&q=bridge |title=The Rainbow Bridge: Rainbows in Art, Myth, and Science |page=viii |publisher=Penn State Press |date=2001 |isbn=9780271019772}}</ref> In some myths, the rainbow merely represents the path made by Iris as she flies.<ref>{{cite book |last=Andrews |first=Tamra |chapter=Rainbows and Rainbow Myths |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7jS65aClvFEC&pg=PA162 |title=Dictionary of Nature Myths: Legends of the Earth, Sea, and Sky |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-513677-7 |page=162}}</ref>
*Many [[Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology|Aboriginal Australian mythologies]] include a [[Rainbow Serpent]] deity, the name and characteristics of which vary according to cultural traditions. It is often seen as a creator god, and also as a force of destruction. It is generally considered to control the rain, and conceals itself in waterholes during the dry season. Rock paintings of the Being are scattered across the continent, mostly found in western Arnhem Land.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Taçon |first=Paul S. C. |last2=Wilson |first2=Meredith |last3=Chippindale |first3=Christopher |date=1996 |title=Birth of the Rainbow Serpent in Arnhem Land Rock Art and Oral History |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/40387039 |journal=Archaeology in Oceania |volume=31 |issue=3 |pages=103–124 |issn=0728-4896}}</ref>
*In Chinese mythology, [[Hong (rainbow-dragon)|Hong]] is a two-headed dragon that represents the rainbow.
*In [[Mesoamerican religion|Mesoamerican]] cultures, [[Ixchel|Ix Chel]] is a maternal jaguar goddess associated with rain. Chel means rainbow in the [[Yucatán]] [[Poqomchi' people|Poqomchi']] language. Ix Chel wears a serpent headdress and presides principally over birth and healing.
*Anuenue, the rainbow maiden, appears in Hawaiian legends as the messenger for her brothers, the gods Tane and Kanaloa.<ref name=Craig2004>{{cite book |last=Craig |first=Robert D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LOZuirJWXvUC&pg=PA174 |title=Handbook of Polynesian Mythology |page=174 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |date=2004 |isbn=9781576078945}}</ref>
*Several [[West Africa]]n religions incorporate personified rainbow spirits. Examples include [[Oxumare]] in the [[Yoruba religion|Yoruban]] religion [[Ifá]]; [[Ayida-Weddo]] in [[Haitian Vodou]], as practiced in [[Benin]]; and the pythons Dagbe Dre and Dagbe Kpohoun in [[West African Vodun]], as practiced by the [[Ewe people]] of Benin.
*In Māori mythology there are several personifications for the rainbow, depending on its form, who usually appear representing omens and are appealed to during times of war. The most widespread of these are [[Uenuku]] and [[Uenuku#Kahukura|Kahukura]].<ref name=Best1982/><ref name=Craig2004/>
*For the [[Karen people]] of [[Burma]], the rainbow is considered as a painted and dangerous demon that eats children.
*In [[Muisca religion]], [[Cuchavira]] or Cuhuzabiba, who was called "shining air" is the rainbow deity,<ref>Ocampo López, 2013, Ch. 8, p.53</ref> which in the [[Andes]] rain and sun were both very important for their agriculture.
*Amitolane is a rainbow spirit from the [[Zuni mythology|mythology of the Zuni]], a Native American tribe.
*In [[Albanian folk beliefs]] the rainbow is regarded as the belt of the goddess [[Prende]], and oral legend has it that anyone who jumps over the rainbow changes their sex.<ref>{{cite book|last=Elsie|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Elsie|title=A Dictionary of Albanian Religion, Mythology and Folk Culture|place=London|publisher=Hurst & Company|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N_IXHrXIsYkC|isbn=1-85065-570-7|year=2001|page=258}}</ref>
*In pre-Hispanic Andean cosmology, the rainbow was related with both the sacred serpent or [[Amaru (mythology)|amaru]] and the thunder god Illapa.<ref>John E. Staller, Lightning (Illapa)  and its manifestations: huacas and  Ushnus, 177-79><The Incas have gone inside: pattern and persistence in Andean iconography, pg 179-99 > It was simultaneously considered as a mediating symbol between the lower, middle and upper worlds. <https://www.dukeupress.edu/inka-bodies-and-the-body-of-christ pg. 145-47></ref>