Reinhold Merkelbach

Reinhold Merkelbach (born June 7, 1918 in Grenzhausen ; † July 28, 2006 ) was a German classical philologist and epigraphist .

Reinhold Merkelbach, from a family of entrepreneurs in the Westerwald (stoneware factory), studied classical philology in Munich from 1937 to 1938 and in Hamburg from 1945 to 1947. His studies were interrupted by military service. Merkelbach received his doctorate in 1947 at the University of Hamburg and also completed his habilitation there in 1950. In 1950 he was re-qualified at the University of Cologne . From 1957 to 1961 he worked as a full professor at the University of Erlangen , from 1961 to his retirement in 1983 at the University of Cologne.

The focus of Merkelbach's research was on the one hand the ancient history of religion , on which he published numerous works (also on the relationship between religion and the ancient novel). He also researched Homer , Hesiod and Plato . On the other hand, since the 1970s, he has played a key role in establishing a research focus on ancient epigraphy and papyrology at the University of Cologne. Together with colleagues and students, he edited numerous collections of inscriptions , especially in the series of inscriptions from Greek cities from Asia Minor . Merkelbach was also (co-) editor of several series ( articles on classical philology , papyrological texts and treatises , articles on antiquity ) and journals ( magazine for papyrology and epigraphy , Epigraphica Anatolica ).

Merkelbach received an honorary doctorate from the University of Besançon in 1978 . Since 1981 he has been a full member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts , and since 1986 a corresponding member of the British Academy . From 1968 to 1971 he was a member, from 1974 to 1980 Vice-President of the Comité International de Papyrologie / International Committee of Papyrology.

His students include Gerhard Binder , Wolfgang Blümel , Thomas Corsten , Helmut Engelmann , Michael Erler , Joachim Gruber , Albert Henrichs , Bärbel Kramer , Johannes Kramer , Wolfgang Dieter Lebek , Georg Petzl , Markus Stein , Heinz-Josef Thissen , Jürgen Trumpf , Cornelia Römer and Günter Wojaczek .

Fonts

• Roman and mystery in antiquity . Beck, Munich 1962.
• Isis festivals in Greco-Roman times. Dates and rites . Hain, Meisenheim am Glan 1963.
• Investigations on the Odyssey . 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Beck, Munich 1969 (first 1951).
• Fragmenta Hesiodea . OUP, Oxford, England 1967. (With Martin Litchfield West ; editio minor, OCT, 1970, 1984 2nd revised edition).
• The sources of the Greek novel by Alexander . 2nd, revised edition. Beck, Munich 1977, ISBN 3-406-03249-4 (first 1954).
• Mani and his religious system . Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1986, ISBN 3-531-07281-1 .
• The shepherds of Dionysus. The Dionysus Mysteries of the Roman Empire and the Bucolic Roman of Longus . Teubner, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-519-07410-9 .
• The importance of money in the history of the Greco-Roman world . Teubner, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-519-07550-4 .
• Hestia and Erigone. Lectures and essays . Teubner, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-519-07438-9 .
• Philologica. Selected small fonts . Teubner, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-519-07439-7 .
• Mithras . A Persian-Roman mystery cult . VMA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1998, ISBN 3-928127-61-6 (first 1984).
• Isis regina - Zeus Sarapis. The Greek-Egyptian religion depicted according to the sources . 2nd, improved edition. Saur, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-598-77427-3 (first 1995).

literature

• Wolfgang Dieter Lebek : Obituary for Reinhold Merkelbach. In: North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, yearbook. 2007, pp. 166-179.
• Cornelia Römer : Reinhold Merkelbach (1918-2006) . In: Mario Capasso (Ed.): Hermae. Scholars and Scholarship in Papyrology II . Pisa / Rome 2010, pp. 89–91 (with picture).

Web links

• Literature by and about Reinhold Merkelbach in the catalog of the German National Library
• Cornelia Römer: In memoriam Reinhold Merkelbach