Karl Lehrs

Who was Karl Lehrs?

Karl Ludwig Lehrs, was a German classical scholar.

Born at Königsberg, he was of Jewish extraction, but in 1822 he converted to Christianity. In 1845 he was appointed professor of ancient Greek philology in Königsberg University, which post he held till his death.

His most important works are:

De Aristarchi Studiis Homericis, which laid a new foundation for Homeric exegesis and textual criticism

Quaestiones Epicae

De Asclepiade Myrleano

Herodiani Scripta Tria emendatiora. Accedunt Analecta

Populäre Aufsätze aus dem Altertum, his best known work

Horatius Flaccus, in which, on aesthetic grounds, he rejected many of the odes as spurious

Die Pindarscholien.

Lehrs was a man of decided opinions; his enthusiasm for everything Greek caused him to insist on the undivided authorship of the Iliad; comparative mythology and the symbolical interpretation of myths he regarded as a species of sacrilege.