On the icosahedron: from two to three dimensions

In his famous book, Felix Klein describes a complex variable for the quotients of the ordinary sphere by the finite groups of rotations and in particular for the most complex situation of the quotient by the symmetry group of the icosahedron. The purpose of this work and its sequels is to obtain similar results for the quotients of the three--dimensional sphere. Various properties of the group $SU(2)$ and of its representations are used to obtain explicit expressions for coordinates and the relations they satisfy.