Denys Page

Sir Denys Lionel Page, FBA (11 May 1908, Reading, Berkshire – 6 July 1978, Tarset)^[1] was a British classical scholar at Oxford and Cambridge universities. He was President of the British Academy from 1971–74.

Early life

Born at Reading, Page was the son of Frederick Harold Dunn Page, a chartered civil engineer of the Great Western Railway, and his wife Elsie Daniels. He was educated at St. Bartholomew's School, and (as a scholar) at Christ Church, Oxford, where he was taught by Gilbert Murray, and J. D. Denniston. In 1928, he won the Craven and De Paravicini scholarships, the Chancellor's Prize for Latin verse and the Gaisford Prize for Greek verse and a first class in classical honours moderations.

In 1930 he was awarded a First in Literae Humaniores. He was a fast bowler in the Christ Church cricket team.^[2]

Career

Page went for a year to the University of Vienna as Derby scholar, where he worked under Ludwig Radermacher, then returned to Christ Church as a lecturer, the next year becoming Student and Tutor. In 1937 he became Junior Censor.

In 1939 Page was posted to GC&CS, Bletchley Park. In 1942 he became head of section ISOS and a member of the XX Committee.^[3] In 1944 he was Assistant Director, GC&CS.^[4]

Page was elected the 34th Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge University in 1950, a position he held until 1974, and held a professorial fellowship at Trinity College.^[5] He was Master of Jesus College, Cambridge from 1959–73.^[6] He was knighted in 1971.^[5]

Elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1952,^[5][6] he received its Kenyon Medal in 1969, and served as the Academy's president from 1971–74.^[5][6]

Marriage

In 1939, Page married Katharine Elizabeth, a daughter of Joseph Michael Dohan, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the couple had four daughters.^[2]

Publications

• Tragic iambics: a translation of Masefield's Pompey the Great, Act 2, Scene I (awarded Gaisford Prize for Greek Verse) (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1928)
• Actors' interpolations in Greek tragedy, studied with special reference to Euripides' Iphigeneia in Aulis, Oxford 1934
• A new chapter in the history of Greek tragedy, Cambridge 1951
• Alcman, The Partheneion, Oxford 1951
• Corinna, Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, London 1953
• Poetarum Lesbiorum fragmenta (edited with Edgar Lobel), Oxford 1955
• Sappho and Alcaeus; introduction to the study of ancient Lesbian poetry, Oxford 1955
• The Homeric Odyssey, Oxford 1955
• Aeschylus, Agamemnon (edited with John Dewar Denniston) Oxford 1957
• History and the Homeric Iliad, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1959
• Poetae Melici Graeci; Alcmanis, Stesichori, Ibyci, Anacreontis, Simonidis, Corinnae, poetarum minorum reliquias, carmina popularia et convivialia quaeque adespota feruntur, Oxford 1962—listed in scholarly sources as PMG with numbers denoting fragments of lyric verse
• Lyrica Graeca selecta (edited), 1968
• The Santorini volcano and the desolation of Minoan Crete, Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, London 1970
• Aeschyli septem quae supersunt tragoedias (edited) Oxford 1972
• Supplementum lyricis Graecis : poetarum lyricorum Graecorum fragmenta quae recens innotuerunt (edited), Oxford 1974
• The epigrams of Rufinus (edited) Cambridge 1978
• Further Greek epigrams : epigrams before AD 50 from the Greek anthology and other sources, not included in Hellenistic epigrams or The garland of Philip (edited), Cambridge 1981

References

1. Catologus Philologorum Classicorum 1880-1980
2. Hugh Lloyd-Jones, 'Page, Sir Denys Lionel (1908–1978)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 online version (subscription required). Retrieved 23 August 2008
3. Smith, Michael (1998), Station X Pan.
4. see, e.g., National Archives cat KV2/466
5. Lloyd-Jones, Hugh (2004). "Page, Sir Denys Lionel (1908–1978), classical scholar". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 24 May 2008.
6. "British Academy Fellows Archive". British Academy. Retrieved 24 May 2008.