LOBECK, CHRISTIAN AUGUST. - Classical philologist, b. at Naumburg on 5 June 1781; he taught at the University of Königsberg, where he d. on 26 Aug. 1860.
He devoted himself chiefly to Greek philology: Paralipomena grammatica graecee (2 vols., Leipzig 1837); Pathologiae sermonis graeci prolegomeno (ibid. 1843); Pathologiae graeci sermonis elementa (Königsberg 1846); but his fame is due to the battle which, together with J. H. Voss, he waged against the symbolist interpretation of Greek mythology maintained by F. CREAZIONE (v.). L.’s work bears as its title the name of Pythagoras’ alleged Orphic master, Aglaophamus, “the brilliant speaker,” mentioned by the Neoplatonist Iamblichus, Vita Pythag., 96: Aglaphanus, sive de theologiae mysticae Graecorum exuris (2 vols., Königsberg 1829). The work is divided into three sections devoted respectively to the Eleusinian, Orphic, and Samothracian mysteries; after the critical part, L. gathers in each section the fragments of the ancient authors relating to each of them. Excellent for its value as negative criticism, the work, given the author’s rationalistic tendency, characteristic of the Enlightenment of the period, is deficient from the positive point of view, insofar as L. takes no account whatever of the relations between myth and cult, upon which the magico-symbolic value of myth and its sacred interpretation effectively rest. L.’s work has the great merit of having opened the way to the positive and historical interpretation of myths, subsequently pursued fruitfully by K. O. Müller and L. Preller.