Creuzer's first and most famous work was his
Symbolik und Mythologie der alten Völker, besonders der Griechen (1810–12, 2nd ed. 1819, 3rd ed. 1837), in which he maintained that the mythology of
Homer and
Hesiod came from an Eastern source through the
Pelasgians, and reflected the symbolism of an ancient revelation; as a reconciliation with
Judeo-Christian religion, it was,
Walter Burkert has said, "the last large-scale and thoroughly unavailing endeavor of this kind." This work ran counter to the ideology of
romantic nationalism, which held literature and culture to be intimately connected with a
Volk, epitomized by
Karl Otfried Müller's concept of a Greek
Stammeskultur, a Greek "tribal culture". For this and the next generations, "origins and organic development rather than reciprocal cultural influences became the key to understanding." Creuzer's work was vigorously attacked by
Johann Gottfried Jakob Hermann in his
Briefen über Homer und Hesiod, and in his letter, addressed to Creuzer,
Über das Wesen und die Behandlung der Mythologie; by
Johann Heinrich Voss in his
Antisymbolik; and by
Christian Lobeck in his
Aglaophamus. It was briefly praised, however, by
Hegel in his
Philosophy of Right. Creuzer's other works include: • an edition of
Plotinus • a partial edition of
Cicero, in preparing which he was assisted by Moser •
Epochen der griechischen Literaturgeschichte (1802) •
Die historische Kunst der Griechen (1803) •
Abriss der römischen Antiquitaten (1824) •
Zur Geschichte altrömischer Cultur am Oberrhein und Neckar (1833) •
Zur Gemmenkunde (1834) •
Das Mithreum von Neuenheim (1838) •
Zur Galerie der alten Dramatiker (1839) •
Zur Geschichte der classischen Philologie (1854). See the autobiographical
Aus dem Leben eines alten Professors (Leipzig and Darmstadt, 1848), to which was added in the year of his death
Paralipomena der Lebenskunde eines alten Professors (Frankfurt, 1858); also Starck,
Friederich Kreuzer, sein Bildungsgang und seine bleibende Bedeutung (Heidelberg, 1875). ==Notes==