Pythius

views updated

Pythius or Pytheos (fl. c.370–334 bc). Hellenistic architect, who, with Satyros, designed and wrote about the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (begun c.354 bc), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. His Temple of Athena at Priene (334 bc) is one of the finest Ionic temples and therefore he is credited with bringing the Ionic Order to canonical perfection. His writings, have not survived, but the references to him by Vitruvius suggest he was an important Greek architectural theorist.

Bibliography

Dinsmoor (1950);
Fyfe (1936);
Lawrence (1983);
D. S. Robertson (1945);
Jane Turner (1983);

More From encyclopedia.com