( fl late 2nd century BC–mid-1st). Greek architect and astronomer. He is associated with a single building, the Tower of the Winds (Horologion) on the edge of the Roman agora in Athens, of which he was named the architect by Vitruvius (On Architecture I.vi.4). This elegant and ingenious small marble octagonal building was designed externally as a monumental sundial and weather-vane, with a representation of each of the eight winds carved on the sides of the octagon; at the apex of the roof was a bronze Triton that acted as a weathercock. The interior of the building contained a complicated waterclock; apart from the Triton and the clock, the building is well preserved. Andronikos’ home town of Kyrrhos appears to be that in Macedonia, rather than the town of the same name in Syria, because a sundial from the island of Tenos carries an epigram in honour of its maker, who is named as Andronikos of Kyrrhos in Macedonia, son of Hermias, and compares him with the famous Hellenistic astronomer Aratos of Soli in Cilicia ( fl c. 315–c. 240 BC; Inscr. Gr./1, XII/v, 891). The date of the Tower of the Winds, and hence of Andronikos, is uncertain. The tower has usually been dated to the mid-1st century BC, connecting its construction with that of the Roman agora and relying on the fact that the tower was mentioned by Varro (On Agriculture III.v.17) and Vitruvius, writing just after the middle of the century: certainly the building cannot be later than 37 BC, the date of Varro’s treatise. It has also been plausibly argued, however, that the monument dates to the late 2nd century BC. An upper limit for the date of Andronikos is given by the Tenos epigram’s comparison of him with Aratos, who flourished c. 315–240 BC.

• Andronikos of Kyrrhos
  • Athens, §I, 2(iii): History & urb. dev., 6th–1st century BC: Hellenistic