Chersiphron (; ; fl. 6th century BC), an architect of
Knossos
Knossos (; , ; Linear B: ''Ko-no-so'') is a Bronze Age archaeological site in Crete. The site was a major centre of the Minoan civilization and is known for its association with the Greek myth of Theseus and the minotaur. It is located on th ...
in
ancient Crete, was the builder of the
Temple of Artemis
The Temple of Artemis or Artemision (; ), also known as the Temple of Diana, was a Greek temple dedicated to an ancient, localised form of the goddess Artemis (equated with the Religion in ancient Rome, Roman goddess Diana (mythology), Diana) ...
at
Ephesus
Ephesus (; ; ; may ultimately derive from ) was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, in present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in the 10th century BC on the site of Apasa, the former Arzawan capital ...
, on the
Ionian coast.
The original temple was destroyed in the 7th century BC, and about 550 BC Chersiphron and his son
Metagenes began a new temple, the ''Artemision'', which became one of the
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World in each of its three manifestations. It was burned by
Herostratus in July 356 BC
[ and rebuilt again.
The architect's name is recalled in ]Vitruvius
Vitruvius ( ; ; –70 BC – after ) was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work titled . As the only treatise on architecture to survive from antiquity, it has been regarded since the Renaissan ...
, and in a passage of Pliny as "Ctesiphon
Ctesiphon ( ; , ''Tyspwn'' or ''Tysfwn''; ; , ; Thomas A. Carlson et al., “Ctesiphon — ܩܛܝܣܦܘܢ ” in The Syriac Gazetteer last modified July 28, 2014, http://syriaca.org/place/58.) was an ancient city in modern Iraq, on the eastern ba ...
", perhaps in confusion with the great Parthia
Parthia ( ''Parθava''; ''Parθaw''; ''Pahlaw'') is a historical region located in northeastern Greater Iran. It was conquered and subjugated by the empire of the Medes during the 7th century BC, was incorporated into the subsequent Achaemeni ...
n city of the same name on the river Tigris
The Tigris ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the eastern of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian Desert, Syrian and Arabia ...
.
References
Notes
Citations
External links
*, 1870: "Chersiphron"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chersiphron
Ancient Greek architects
Ancient Cretan architects
6th-century BC Greek people
Ancient Knossians
Ephesus
6th-century BC architects
Temple of Artemis