Everything about Karl Otfried M Ller totally explained
Karl Otfried Müller (
August 28,
1797–
August 1,
1940), was a
German scholar and
Philodorian, or admirer of ancient
Sparta, who introduced the modern study of
Greek mythology but whose life was cut tragically short.
He was born at
Brieg in
Silesia, and educated partly in
Breslau and partly in
Berlin. There his enthusiasm for the study of Greek literature, art and history was fostered by the influence of
Böckh. In
1817, after the publication of his first work,
Aegineticorum liber, he received an appointment at the Magdaleneum in Breslau, and in 1819 he was made adjunct professor of ancient literature at the
University of Göttingen, his subject being the
archaeology and history of ancient art.
His aim was to form a vivid conception of Greek life as a whole; and his books and lectures were a turning point in the development of Hellenic studies. Müller's position at Göttingen was made difficult by the political troubles which followed the accession of
Ernest Augustus I of Hanover in 1837, he applied for permission to travel; and in 1839 he left Germany. In April of the following year he reached
Greece, having spent the winter in Italy. He investigated the remains of ancient
Athens, visited many places of interest in
Peloponnesus, and finally went to
Delphi, where he began excavations. He was attacked by intermittent fever, of which he died at Athens.
The most important of his historical works was his
Geschichten hellenischen Stämme und Städte: Orchomenos und die Minyer (1820), and
Die Dorier (1824), including the essay
Über die Makedonier, on the settlements, origin and early history of the
Macedonians. He introduced a new standard of accuracy in the
cartography of ancient Greece. In 1828 he published
Die Etrusker, a treatise on
Etruscan antiquities.
His
Prolegomena zu einer wissenschaftlichen Mythologie (1825), in which he avoided the extreme views of
G. F. Creuzer and
C. A. Lobeck, prepared the way for the scientific investigation of
myths. Working without the benefit of modern understanding of
psychology, he offered steps towards the "internal idea" of myth and presented techniques for determining the age of a
mythus from the mentions of it in literary sources and a notable chapter on how to separate the
mythus from the modifications of poets and prose writers, and examined the relations that
Homer and
Hesiod bore to their traditions, before the contributions of modern archaeology, philological analysis, or the understanding of oral transmission of myth.
The study of ancient art was promoted by his
Handbuch der Archäologie der Kunst (1830), and
Denkmäler der alten Kunst (1832), which he wrote in association with
Carl Oesterley.
In 1841 appeared his posthumous
Geschichte der griechischen Literatür, which remained one of the best books on the subject for many years. Müller also published an admirable translation of the
Eumenides of
Aeschylus with introductory essays (1833), and new editions of
Varro (1833) and
Festus (1839).
Quotes
- "A democracy likes a large mass and hates all divisions."
Works
The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, 2nd. ed. rev., 2 Vol., translated from the German by Henry Tufnell and George Cornewall Lewis, John Murray, Albemarle Str., London, 1839.
References and footnotes
memoir of his life by his brother Eduard, prefixed to the posthumous edition of Müller's Kleine deutsche Schriften (1847)
F. Lucke, Erinnerungen an K.O. Müller (Göttingen, 1841)
F. Ranke, K.O. Müller, ein Lebensbild (Berlin, 1870)
Conrad Bursian, Geschichte der klassischen Philologie in Deutschland (1883), ii. 1007-1028
C. Dilthey, Otfried Müller (Göttingen, 1898)
E. Curtius, Altertum und Gegenwart
J. W. Donaldson's essay On the Life and Writings of Karl Otfried Müller in vol. i. of the English translation of the history of Greek literature.
A biography composed from his letters was published by O. and Else Kern, K. O. Müller, Lebensbild in Briefen an seine Eltern (1908); see also
J. E. Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship, iii. (1908), 213-216.
Footnotes
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