Spintharus of Corinth () was an ancient Greek architect.
Pausanias reported in his ''
Description of Greece
''Description of Greece'' () is the only surviving work by the ancient "geographer" or tourist Pausanias (geographer), Pausanias (c. 110 – c. 180).
Pausanias' ''Description of Greece'' comprises ten books, each of them dedicated to some ...
'' that the
Alcmaeonids
The Alcmaeonidae (; , ; Attic: , ) or Alcmaeonids () were a wealthy and powerful noble family of ancient Athens, a branch of the Neleides who claimed descent from the mythological Alcmaeon, the great-grandson of Nestor.
In the 7th to late 5th ...
hired him to build a
temple
A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...
at
Delphi
Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), was an ancient sacred precinct and the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient Classical antiquity, classical world. The A ...
. This is the only record of Spintharus.
The
temple to Apollo at Delphi had to be rebuilt after a fire in 548 BC and again after an earthquake in 373 BC.
Historians have offered competing claims as to which temple Spintharus constructed.
Debate on chronology
J. B. Bury
John Bagnell Bury (; 16 October 1861 – 1 June 1927) was an Anglo-Irish historian, classical scholar, Medieval Roman historian and philologist. He objected to the label " Byzantinist" explicitly in the preface to the 1889 edition of his ''La ...
argued he built the 6th century temple because of accounts saying the fourth century temple was built by Xenodorus.
John Henry Middleton
John Henry Middleton (5 October 1846 – 10 June 1896) was an archaeologist and a museum director.
Early years
He was born in York on 5 October 1846, John Henry Middleton was the only surviving child of John Middleton and Maria Margaret, daugh ...
dated Spintharus's construction to the latter half of the sixth century, BC.
Karl Julius Sillig
Karl Julius Sillig (12 May 1801 – 14 January 1855) was a German classics scholar, and pupil of Karl August Böttiger. Sillig went on to edit many of Böttiger's works after the latter's death in 1835. He also revised and edited the work of ot ...
wrote Spintharus lived around the time of the 60th Olympiad,
i.e., 540 BC.
However,
James George Frazer
Sir James George Frazer (; 1 January 1854 – 7 May 1941) was a Scottish social anthropologist and folkloristJosephson-Storm (2017), Chapter 5. influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion.
...
argued he built the fourth century temple. He notes that Xenodorus is inscribed as the fourth century architect, but suggests Spintharus planned and began construction and Xenodorus continued construction after his death.
Janina K. Darling reports Spintharus began construction in 346 BC and after his death the project was completed by the architects Xenodorus and Agathon.
Hélène Perdicoyianni-Paléologou also lists all three architects as working on the rebuilding of the temple, which was completed in 320 BC.
William Bell Dinsmoor
William Bell Dinsmoor Sr. (July 29, 1886 – July 2, 1973) was an American architectural historian of classical Greece and a Columbia University professor of art and archaeology.
Biography
He was born on July 29, 1886, in Windham, New Hampshire. ...
notes that expense reports suggest that Xenodorus and Agathon continued Spintharus' construction on the fourth century temple.
It has also been suggested that Spintharus was the "chief designer" whereas Xenodorus and Agathon were directly in charge of supervising construction.
Other possible works
Middleton also suggested Spintharus also built the temple at
Corinth
Corinth ( ; , ) is a municipality in Corinthia in Greece. The successor to the ancient Corinth, ancient city of Corinth, it is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese (region), Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Sin ...
due to similarities in some of the details such as the
hypotrachelia
The hypotrachelium is the upper part or groove in the shaft of a Doric column, beneath the trachelium. The Greek form is ''hypotrakhelion''.
In classical architecture, it is the space between the annulet of the echinus and the upper bed of the ...
.
See also
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Ancient Greek architecture
Ancient Greek architecture came from the Greeks, or Hellenes, whose Ancient Greece, culture flourished on the Greek mainland, the Peloponnese, the Aegean Islands, and in colonies in Asia Minor, Anatolia and Italy for a period from about 900 BC ...
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List of Ancient Greek temples
This list of ancient Greek temples covers temples built by the Hellenic people from the 6th century BC until the 2nd century AD on mainland Greece and in Hellenic towns in the Aegean Islands, Asia Minor, Sicily and Italy ("Magna Graecia"), where ...
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Notes
References
Further reading
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nglish summary: *
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Ancient Greek architects
Ancient Corinthians
4th-century BC Greek people