Spintharus of Corinth

Spintharus of Corinth (Ancient Greek: Σπίνθαρος, romanized: Spíntharos) was an ancient Greek architect. Pausanias reported in his Description of Greece that the Alcmaeonids hired him to build a temple at Delphi.[lower-alpha 1] This is the only record of Spintharus.[1] The temple to Apollo at Delphi had to be rebuilt after a fire in 548 BC and again after an earthquake in 373 BC.[2] Historians have offered competing claims as to which temple Spintharus constructed.

Not to be confused with the tragic poet Spintharus of Heracleia mentioned in Suda, with the character Spintharus mentioned in Aristophanes' The Birds, or with Spintharus of Tarentum, father of Aristoxenus.
Ruins of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi

Debate on chronology

J. B. Bury argued he built the 6th century temple because of accounts saying the fourth century temple was built by Xenodorus.[3] John Henry Middleton dated Spintharus's construction to the latter half of the sixth century, BC.[4]: 310  Karl Julius Sillig wrote Spintharus lived around the time of the 60th Olympiad,[5] i.e., 540 BC.

However, James George Frazer 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.[6][7] Janina K. Darling reports Spintharus began construction in 346 BC and after his death the project was completed by the architects Xenodorus and Agathon.[8]: 182  Hélène Perdicoyianni-Paléologou also lists all three architects as working on the rebuilding of the temple, which was completed in 320 BC.[9] William Bell Dinsmoor notes that expense reports suggest that Xenodorus and Agathon continued Spintharus' construction on the fourth century temple.[10] It has also been suggested that Spintharus was the "chief designer" whereas Xenodorus and Agathon were directly in charge of supervising construction.[11]

Other possible works

Middleton also suggested Spintharus also built the temple at Corinth due to similarities in some of the details such as the hypotrachelia.[12]

See also

Notes
  1. Pausanias. Hellados Periegesis. X.5.13. "τέταρτος δὲ ὑπὸ Τροφωνίου μὲν εἰργάσθη καὶ Ἀγαμήδους, λίθου δὲ αὐτὸν ποιηθῆναι μνημονεύουσι: κατεκαύθη δὲ Ἐρξικλείδου μὲν Ἀθήνῃσιν ἄρχοντος, πρώτῳ δὲ τῆς ὀγδόης Ὀλυμπιάδος ἔτει καὶ πεντηκοστῆς, ἣν Κροτωνιάτης ἐνίκα Διόγνητος. τὸν δ' ἐφ' ἡμῶν τῷ θεῷ ναὸν ᾠκοδόμησαν μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν ἱερῶν οἱ Ἀμφικτύονες χρημάτων, ἀρχιτέκτων δέ τις Σπίνθαρος ἐγένετο αὐτοῦ Κορίνθιος." Translations include: T. Taylor (1794),[lower-alpha 2] J. G. Frazer (1898),[lower-alpha 3] W. H. S. Jones (1935),[lower-alpha 4] and Peter Levi (1971).[lower-alpha 5]

References
  1. Davies, John K. (2001). "Rebuilding a Temple: The Economic Effects of Piety". In Mattingly, David J.; Salmon, John (eds.). Economies Beyond Agriculture in the Classical World. London: Routledge. p. 226. doi:10.4324/9780203204467. ISBN 9780203204467.
  2. Scott, Michael (2014). Delphi: A History of the Center of the Ancient World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. 93–94, 145–146. ISBN 978-0-691-15081-9.
  3. Bury, J. B. (1899). "The Second Temple of the Pythian Apollo". Hermathena. 10 (25): 274. JSTOR 23036643.
  4. Middleton, J. Henry (1888). "The Temple of Apollo at Delphi". The Journal of Hellenic Studies. 9: 282–322. doi:10.2307/623677. JSTOR 623677.
  5. Sillig, Julius (1837). "Spintharus". Dictionary of the Artists of Antiquity. London: Black and Armstrong. p. 121.
  6. Frazer, J. G. (1898). Translation. Pausanias's Description of Greece. Vol. 1. London: MacMillan. pp. xciii–xciv, 506.
  7. Frazer, J. G. (1898). Commentary on Books IX., X. Addenda. Pausanias's Description of Greece. Vol. 5. London: MacMillan. pp. 329, 337, 633.
  8. Darling, Janina K. (2004). "Temple of Apollo Pythias, Delphi". Architecture of Greece. Reference Guides to National Architecture. Westport, CT: Greenwood. pp. 181–183. ISBN 9780313321528.
  9. Perdicoyianni-Paléologou, Hélène (2017). "Building of the First Temple of Apollo in Delphi (6th Century BC)". In Curta, Florin; Holt, Andrew (eds.). Prehistory to AD 600. Great Events in Religion: An Encyclopedia of Pivotal Events in Religious History. Vol. 1. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. p. 58. ISBN 9781610695664.
  10. Woodward, Robert (2012). An Architectural Investigation into the Relationship between Doric Temple Architecture and Identity in the Archaic and Classical Periods (PhD). University of Sheffield. p. 71.
    • Citing: Dinsmoor, W. B. (1950). The Architecture of Ancient Greece: An Account of its Historic Development (3rd ed.). London: Batsford. p. 217.
  11. Broeck-Parant, Jena Vanden (2023). "Builders, Architects, and the Power of Context: Agents of Architectural Change in Fourth-Century-BCE Epidaurus and Delphi". In Castelli, Silvia; Sluiter, Ineke (eds.). Agents of Change in the Greco-Roman and Early Modern Periods: Ten Case Studies in Agency in Innovation. Leiden: Brill. pp. 43–44. doi:10.1163/9789004680012_004. ISBN 978-90-04-68000-5.
    • Citing: Amandry, Pierre; Hansen, Erik (2010). Le temple d'Apollon du IVe siècle. Fouilles de Delphes II, Topographie et architecture 14 (in French). Vol. I. Athènes: Ecole française d'Athènes. pp. 464–465.
  12. Middleton, J. H. (1888). "[Notes on the Temple of Apollo and its existing remains]". The Antiquary. 17: 222–223.
  13. Pausanias (1935). Description of Greece, Volume IV: Books 8.22–10 (Arcadia, Boeotia, Phocis and Ozolian Locri). Loeb Classical Library. Vol. 297. Translated by Jones, W. H. S. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. pp. 396–397. doi:10.4159/DLCL.pausanias-description_greece.1918.
  14. Pausanias (1794). The Description of Greece. Vol. 3. Translated by Taylor, Thomas. London: R. Faulder. p. 116.
  15. Pausanias (1979) [1971]. "Book X: Phokis". Pausanias Guide to Greece. Vol. 1: Central Greece. Translated by Levi, Peter (Repr. with rev. ed.). New York: Penguin Classics. pp. 418, 418–419 n. 37.

Further reading
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