its narrower and longer predecessor of ca 485 BCE, burnt by the Persians in 480/479
BCE. Iktinos designed a wider temple, with 8 × 17 columns allowing a larger interior, and
re-used many blocks and column drums from the older building, some of them re-cut.
By emphasizing the proportion 4:9, using many “refinements” (deviations from the hori-
zontal and vertical), including Ionic features, and an elaborate sculptural program, Iktinos
created a superlative temple. M. Korres has shown that the Parthenon had windows
in the door wall between the cella and pronaos, an interior service staircase to the attic in
the width of the same wall on its north side, and included an earlier shrine in the north
peristyle.
At Eleusis, Iktinos sought a spacious interior to accommodate initiates into the Eleusinian
Mysteries in privacy. He chose a nearly square plan with a Doric exterior and an Ionic,
many-columned interior, more than doubling the space of its predecessor. Others com-
pleted this work when Iktinos went to Bassae ca 429 – 427 BCE, where he repeated an
archaic predecessor’s plan for continuity, but introduced the first engaged Ionic columns
into the interior, the first Corinthian capital, and an interior sculptured frieze. Iktinos was
outstanding for his innovations, adaptability, and skillful engineering.
M. Korres in P. Tournikiotis, ed., The Parthenon (1994) 56–97, 138–161; F. Cooper, The Temple of Apollo
Bassitas I (1996) 369–379; Svenson-Ebers (1996) 157–211; BNP 6 (2005) 708–709, H. Knell; KLA
1.338–345, M. Korres; J. Neils, ed., The Parthenon (2005).
Margaret M. Miles
Imbrasios (Paradox.) (100 – 550 CE)
One of the sources named by T, at the end of his Quastiones Physicae. The
rare name is attested (Markovich). Cf. H, H A, and
S, also named as sources.
M. Markovich, “Supplement to RE: A New Paradoxographer,” CP 54 (1959) 260; RE S.10 (1965)
328, Idem.
PTK
Imbrasios of Ephesos (300 BCE – 650 CE?)
Putative author of a short work on iatromathematics, Prognostica de decubitu ex mathematica
scientia, attributed to G in most MSS but to Imbrasios in a single codex seemingly
independent of the rest of the manuscript tradition. Weinstock argued for the authenticity
of the ascription to Imbrasios and further speculated that this Imbrasios was a pseud-
epigraphical writer identifiable with a legendary Egyptian priest-magician Iambre ̄s or
Ambre ̄s. The work is of exceptional interest as one of the few extant on iatromathemat-
ics. After a preface addressed to an Aphrodisios and invoking the Stoics, H,
and D K, the main body of the text works systematically through
forecasts for a sick person based on astronomical conditions in effect at the time the patient
is bedridden, with particular emphasis on zodiacal position, apparent speed, and latitude of
the Moon.
S. Weinstock “The Author of Ps.-Galen’s Prognostica de Decubitu,” CQ 42 (1948) 41–43.
Alexander Jones
IMBRASIOS OF EPHESOS