Rainbows in culture Rainbows in culture The rainbow, a natural phenomenon noted for its design and its place in the sky, has been a favorite component of art and religion throughout history. The rainbow has a place in legend owing to its beauty and the historical difficulty in explaining the phenomenon. In Greco-Roman mythology, the rainbow was considered to be a path made by a messenger (Iris) between Earth and Heaven. In Chinese mythology, the rainbow was a slit in the sky sealed by goddess Nüwa using stones of five different colours. The Irish leprechaun's secret hiding place for his pot of gold
The Gold at the Starbow's End title is a word coined by one of the characters on the starship. It refers to the rainbow-like effect seen when stars are undergoing a relativistic Doppler effect. In the novel the crew of the "Constitution" exact revenge on Earth by sending a beam of "strange" particles back to the home planet, causing all nuclear materials to melt down harmlessly, reducing the population to poverty in the absence of nuclear power. The last section relates the events surrounding the return of the crew's children to Earth. Shortly after its original appearance in "Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact", "The Gold at the