Christian August Lobeck (; 5 June 1781 – 25 August 1860) was a German classical scholar. Lobeck was born at Naumburg, in the Electorate of Saxony. After studying at the universities of

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...

and

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

, he became '' Privatdozent'' at the

University of Wittenberg Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university in ...

in 1802, and in 1810 was appointed to a professorship there. Four years later, he accepted the chair of rhetoric and ancient literature at

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was name ...

, which he occupied till within two years of his death. His literary activities were devoted to the history of Greek religion and to the

Greek language Greek ( el, label= Modern Greek, Ελληνικά, Elliniká, ; grc, Ἑλληνική, Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy ( Calabria and Salento), southe ...

and literature. His most important work, ''Aglaophamus'' (1829), maintains, against the views put forward by G. F. Creuzer in his ''Symbolik'' (1810–1823), that the religion of the Greek mysteries (especially those of Eleusis) did not essentially differ from the national religion; that it was not esoteric, and that the priests as such neither taught nor possessed any higher knowledge of God; that the Oriental elements were a later importation. Lobeck's edition of the ''

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Gree ...

'' of

Sophocles Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or c ...

(1809) had gained him a reputation a scholar and critic; his ''Phrynichus'' (1820), ''Paralipomena grammaticae Graecae'' (vol. I–II; 1837), ''Pathologiae sermonis Graeci prolegomena'' (1843), and ''Pathologiae Graeci sermonis elementa'' (vol. I–II; 1853–62) reveal his wide acquaintance with

Greek grammar Greek grammar may refer to: *Ancient Greek grammar *Koine Greek grammar *Modern Greek grammar The grammar of Modern Greek, as spoken in present-day Greece and Cyprus, is essentially that of Demotic Greek, but it has also assimilated certain elem ...

. He had little sympathy with comparative

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

, holding that it needed a lifetime to acquire a thorough knowledge of a single language. See the article by L. Friedländer in ''Allgemeine deutsche Biographie''; Conrad Bursian's ''Geschichte der klassischen Philologie in Deutschland'' (1883); Lehrs, ''Populäre Aufsätze aus dem Altertum'' (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1875); Lüdwich, ''Ausgewählte Briefe von und an Chr. Aug. Lobeck und K. Lehrs (1894); also JE Sandys, ''History of Classical Scholarship'' (1st ed. 1908).

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References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lobeck, Christian 1781 births 1860 deaths People from Naumburg (Saale) People from the Electorate of Saxony German classical scholars Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)