Ictinus facts for kids

Ictinus (pronounced Ick-TEE-nus) was a very important architect in ancient Greece. He lived around the middle of the 5th century BC. Think of him as a superstar builder from way back then!

Ictinus is best known for helping to design the famous Parthenon in Athens, Greece. He worked on this huge project with another architect named Callicrates. They even wrote a book together about how they built it, but sadly, that book is now lost.

Designing Famous Buildings

Ictinus was a busy architect and worked on several amazing buildings.

The Parthenon

The Parthenon is a huge temple on the Acropolis in Athens. It was built for the goddess Athena. Ictinus and Callicrates made sure it was incredibly beautiful and strong. The Parthenon is a great example of ancient Greek architecture and is still admired today.

The Temple of Apollo at Bassae

Another famous building Ictinus designed was the Temple of Apollo at Bassae. This temple was special because it used different styles of columns. On the outside, it had the strong, simple Doric columns. Inside, it featured the more elegant Ionic columns. What's really cool is that it also had the very first known Corinthian column. This column style is known for its fancy, leaf-like decorations.

The Telesterion at Eleusis

Ictinus also designed a giant hall called the Telesterion at Eleusis. This building was used for special religious ceremonies called the Eleusinian Mysteries. These were secret rituals that people took part in to learn about life and death.

A Challenging Time

Ictinus was asked by a powerful leader named Pericles to design the Telesterion. However, Pericles lost his power, and Ictinus's work on the Telesterion stopped. Other architects took over the project.

It seems that being connected to a leader who lost power wasn't good for Ictinus's reputation. A famous writer named Aristophanes even made fun of him in a play called The Birds. In the play, he described a bird called an "ictinus" (which sounds like the architect's name) not as a noble bird, but as a scavenger. This was probably a joke aimed at the architect himself!

Ictinus in Art

Many centuries later, a famous artist named Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres painted a picture showing Ictinus. The painting is called Pindar and Ictinus and shows Ictinus with a poet named Pindar. You can see this painting at the National Gallery, London in England.

See also

In Spanish: Ictino para niños