"Is Wilamowitz Mad?" An Unpublished Letter by Edgar Lobel

The main point of this short note is to shed some light on Lobel’s surprisingly harsh and asyet unexplained condemnation of Wilamowitz (and Euripides): «Euripides, like Wilamowitz, knew no Greek»1. Calder (1988, 160) suggested «the only explanation for Lobel’s opinion is that he could not grasp Wilamowitz’ contribution, whereas Housman could. Housman, therefore, as Professor Jocelyn and Wilamowitz hold, knew Greek better than Lobel». As the following letter indicates, that is not the only explanation.