Karl Lehrs' Ten Commandments for Classical Philologists

Author(s): William M. Calder III

Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Classical World, Vol. 74, No. 4 (Dec., 1980 - Jan., 1981), pp. 227-228
Published by: Classical Association of the Atlantic States
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SCHOLIA
227
and petulant child? He, like Eros, will do anything for a golden bauble; Jason's
own motivation is criticised as being selfish, wilful and puerile. The picture of
Eros tugging impatiently at his mother's skirts, imploring her to hand over the
golden trinket there and then, looks like a wicked parody of Jason's petition to
Medea (hiketes. . . gounoumenos, 3.987-988) to help him acquire the Golden
Fleece. Moreover, the Golden Fleece belonged to Medea's father, just as the
golden ball belonged to Zeus, Aphrodite's father.3
Texas Tech University

THEODORE M. KLEIN

I wish to thank Judith A. Burke and the referee for Sctholiafor their useful suggestions
which have greatly improved the quality of this note,
3

KARL LEHRS' TEN COMMANDMENTS

FOR CLASSICAL PHILOLOGISTS
Karl Lehrs (1802-1878), Professor of Classical Philology at the University of
Konigsberg and with Bernhardy and Bernays one of the great Jewish classicists
of the pre-Wilamowitzian generation, was a beloved eccentric of cosmopolitan
interests and wit as well as of broad and accurate learning. His De Aristarchi
Studiis Homericis, ed.3 (Leipzig 1882), remains fundamental. The pietas of his
student and successor, Arthur Ludwich (1840-1920), editor of his Kleine Schriften and two volumes of his letters, his bibliographer and biographer, has done
most to preserve his memory.' I wish here simply to recall for Americans his
once famous "Ten Commandments for Classical Philologists." So far as I know
they have never been translated into English. Their recent reprinting urges me to
try.2 They were well known until two generations ago among philologists of the
continent and may still be seen occasionally hanging on the wall of a German
Seminar-Bibliothek. Wilamowitz simply assumed their familiarity.3 All but the
sixth are as applicable today as when Lehrs wrote them over one hundred years
ago.
The first five he had composed by 15 October 1871 ("Aus Ferienschnurren.
Funf Zehngebote fur Philologen."), when he wrote them in a letter to Friedrich
Ritschl (1806-1876) 4, the adversary of Otto Jahn and mentor of Friedrich Nietzsche. The amused reply of Ritschl 5 encouraged him to complete the latter five by
7 March 1873.6 He sent them to Ritschl in a letter of 9 March 1873.7 Lehrs never
I See Karl Lehrs, Kleine Schriften, ed. Arthur Ludwich (Konigsberg 1902; repr. Hildesheim/New York 1979); Arthur Ludwich, Ausgeahile Briefe von und an Chr. A. Lobeck
und K. Lehrs nebst Tagesbuchnotizen, 2 vols (Leipzig 1894), on which see E. Kammer,
"Zur Erinnerung an K. Lehrs," apud Festschrif zum Funfzigjahrigen Doctorjubildum
Ludwig Friedlaender (Leipzig 1895) 183-209. An exemplary annotated bibliography is at
KS 519-47 and the biographical memorial address at KS 554-63. Attention ought also to be
drawn to Karl Lehrs, Populdre Aufsatze aus dem Alterthum vorzugsweise zur Ethik und
Religion der Griechen 2 (Leipzig 1875). The volume contains the famous study of George
Grote (447-78).
2 Only the third was translated by Ulrich von
Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, My Recollections 1848-1914, translated by G. C. Richards (London 1930) 118.
3 Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Erinnerungen 1848-1914 2, (Leipzig 1929) 102,
where Wilamowitz adds several of his own.
4 See Lobeck-Lehrs, Briefe 2.866.
5 Ibid. 867: "Ihre 5 philologischen Zehngebote haben mich sehr erquickt. Machen wir
doch die 10 voll, und ich lasse sie dann im Rheinischen Museum unter den Miscellen als
Mosaische Gesetzes-Tafel drucken zu Nutz und Frommen derer, die sie-schliesslich doch
nicht befolgen!"
6 The date given at KS 476, the text I have used.
7 Lobeck-Lehrs, Briefe 2. 907 with n. 1.

228
CLASSICALWORLD
published them during his lifetime. Only in 1902, his hundredth birthday, did the
faithful Ludwich rescue them from obscurity and publish them all together in the
Kleine Schriften.8 I give with briefest notes the German and my "King James
Version," the latter justified by Lehrs' archaic Lutheran German.
1.
Du sollst nicht nachbeten.
Thou shalt not parrot.
2.
Du sollst nicht stehlen.
Thou shalt not steal.
3.
Du sollst nicht vor Handschriften niederfallen.
Thou shalt not bow down before manuscripts.
4.
Du sollst den Namen Methode nicht unnutz im Munde fuhren.
Thou shalt not take the name Method in vain.
5.
Du sollst lesen lernen.9
Thou shalt learn to read.
6.
Du sollst nicht Sanskritwurzeln klauben
und mein Manna verschmahen. II
Thou shalt not pick at Sanskrit-roots and reject my manna.
7.
Du sollst lernen die Geister unterscheiden.'2
Thou shalt learn to distinguish intellects.
8.
Du sollst nicht glauben, dass Minerva ein blauer Dunst '3 sei: sei ist Dir
gesetzet zur Weisheit.
Thou shalt not believe that Minerva is blue haze and a humbug; she has
been ordained Wisdom for you.
9.
Du sollst nicht glauben, dass zehn schlechte Grunde gleich sind einem
guten.
Thou shalt not believe that ten bad reasons are equal to one good one.
10. Du sollst nicht glauben was einige von den Heiden 14 gesagt haben, Wasser
sei das Beste.
Thou shalt not believe what several of the pagans have said: "Water is the
best. 15

The University of Colorado at Boulder

WILLIAM M. CALDER IIl

8 KS 476. At KS 536 Ludwich notes under 1873 "Sle sind auch in 0. Schade's Wissenschaftl. Monatsbl. VII 1879 Nr. 13 S. 208 wieder abgedruckt worden." I have not seen this
publication.
9 Lehrs apud Lobeck-Lehrs, Briefe 2. 866 adds: "fUr Archaologen 'Sehen'."
0 See ibid., 871 for an earlier version.
See Fridericus Ellendt apud Lexicon Sophocleum,2 edd. F. Ellendt and H. Genthe
(Berlin 1872) iii: "Duo sunt, quae literis antiquis recte cognoscendis maxime videantur officere. Alterum est, quod qui Graece et Latine nesciunt et arduam peritiae parandae viam
aspernantur, Sanscrite balbutire malunt, qua quasi communi linguarum omnium clave usi
perspiciant protinus etc." Lobeck-Lehrs, Briefe 2. 871 proves Lehrs had Ellendt in mind
when formulating this commandment.
12 One recalls Jacob Bernays' advice to the young Wilamowitz that there are scholars of
whom he reads everything, such as Mommsen and Cobet, and there are others of whom he
reads nothing: see Erinnerungen 2, 88.
13 There is a pun that I have preserved only by expanding the original. Blauen Dunsi vormachen means to humbug someone. That Minerva is not a blue haze raps Max Muller and
the solar mythologists. For Lehrs' scepticism see "Naturreligion," Populdre Aufsatze, 261300, esp. 294 (Athene as bright, warm air, born from the storm, Zeus). See further Lewis R.
Farnell, An Oxonian Looks Back (London 1934) 90-91 for Conrad Bursian's obsession
with the heresy at Munich in 1881-1882.
14 Pi. 0. 1. 1; cf. PI. Euthyd.304b, Ar. Rhet. 1.7. 1364a28.
Is I am grateful for guidance to my colleague, Ulrich K. Goldsmith. The late Professor
Gilbert Highet almost twenty years ago first drew my attention to the commandments.