Denys Page

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Denys Page
Born(1908-05-11)11 May 1908
Died6 July 1978(1978-07-06) (aged 70)
Spouse
Katharine Elizabeth Dohan
(m. 1938)
Awards

Sir Denys Lionel Page

Master of Jesus College, Cambridge. He is best known for his critical editions of the Ancient Greek lyric poets and tragedians
.

Coming from a middle-class family in

Second World War working on Ultra intelligence material at the Government Code & Cypher School based at Bletchley Park. In 1950, he was elected Regius Chair of Greek at Cambridge which he held until his retirement in 1973. Initially a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Page was appointed master of the university's Jesus College in 1959. He died of lung cancer
in 1978.

Having published an edition of the poets

knighted
for his services to classical scholarship.

Early life and education

Denys Lionel Page was born on 11 May 1908 in

In 1926, he won a scholarship to study

Career

Lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford (1931–1939)

In 1931, Page was appointed a lecturer at Christ Church and became a Student (a full member of the college's governing body) the following year.[3] It was during this period that he began working on the plays of the Greek poet Euripides, which culminated in the publication of a critical edition and commentary of Euripides' Medea (1938).[4] Following in the footsteps of fellow Oxford classicist Edgar Lobel, he also worked on the poems of the archaic Greek lyric poets.[1]

Christ Church at the University of Oxford, where Page spent his early career

Page assumed an active role in college affairs. In 1936, he strongly opposed the candidacy of the Irish scholar E. R. Dodds for the Regius Chair of Greek which was hosted at Christ Church. Dodds was elected to the position in spite of Page's reservations.[5] In 1937 he was appointed to the office of junior censor at the college – the Censor Naturalis Philosophiae, responsible for undergraduate discipline. However, he resigned the position a year later to marry Katharine Elizabeth Dohan, daughter of the American archaeologist Edith Hall Dohan. They had four daughters, one of whom is the Assyriologist Stephanie Dalley.[6]

Wartime service at Bletchley Park (1939–1945)

In 1939, Page was recruited to the

XX Committee, and became a Deputy Director of GC&CS. After the end of World War II in Europe, he was part of a mission to the British headquarters in Colombo, then Singapore and finally Sri Lanka near the end of the war.[6]

Cambridge (1950–1973)

After

Cambridge University had become vacant after the retirement of Donald Struan Robertson. Though he did not submit an application, Page was offered the post by the electors and accepted. He was duly elected a fellow of Trinity College.[6] At this time, Cambridge provided a less stimulating environment for scholars of the classics than Oxford. Page's arrival, together with that of the German Latinist Charles Brink, marked a reinvigoration of classical teaching at the university.[8][9]

Page served as the master of Jesus College, Cambridge, (pictured) from 1959 to 1973

Similarly to his time at Oxford, Page actively participated in the running of the university. Having been elected to the council of Trinity College soon after his arrival,

Greek military junta.[11] Having played as a bowler while at Christ Church,[1] Page also served as the president of Cambridge University Cricket Club from 1971 to 1973.[12]

His tenure at Cambridge saw the publication of a number of books on Greek poetry. In 1955, Lobel and Page published a

critical edition of the poems of the Lesbian poets Alcaeus and Sappho, followed by a book on the same authors (Sappho and Alcaeus).[13] He was also the sole author of studies on Homer's Odyssey (The Homeric Odyssey, 1955) and the Iliad (History and the Homeric Iliad, 1959).[14] His most comprehensive work, an edition of all lyric poets apart from the Lesbians, appeared in 1962 under the title of Poetae Melici Graeci.[1] Resuming his earlier work on the tragedian Euripides, he took over from the recently deceased Denniston an edition of Aeschylus' Agamemnon, which was published in 1957 as a rival to Eduard Fraenkel's edition of the play.[15]

Retirement and death

Although Page had not reached the age of 67, the customary retirement age for his position, he stepped down from his university and college duties in 1973 after his wife's health deteriorated. The couple led a quiet life in Northumberland where he continued his research, drawing on the library of the University of Newcastle. In 1978, he was diagnosed with lung cancer and died on 6 July of the same year. He was survived by his wife Katharine.[16]

Legacy

Page's reputation as a scholar rested chiefly on his work as an editor of Greek poetic texts. He has been described by Lloyd-Jones as the most accomplished scholar amongst his contemporaries in this field, rivalled only by Edgar Lobel.

Journal of Hellenic Studies.[20] In 1978, his contributions to the study of Greek poetry were honoured by the publication of Dionysiaca: nine studies in Greek poetry by former pupils, presented to Sir Denys Page on his seventieth birthday, edited by a group of leading Hellenists.[14]

An accomplished textual critic, Page was not among the leading

dogmatism when dealing with literary matters.[1] His 1955 book The Homeric Odyssey, in the view of contemporary reviewer J. A. Davison, suffers from these weaknesses[22] and is among his most poorly received publications.[23]

Honours

Page was elected a

Selected publications

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lloyd-Jones 2004.
  2. ^ a b Lloyd-Jones 1981, p. 759.
  3. ^ a b Lloyd-Jones 1981, p. 760.
  4. ^ Phillips 1939.
  5. ^ Lloyd-Jones 1981, p. 761.
  6. ^ a b c Lloyd-Jones 1981, p. 762.
  7. ^ "Bletchley Park Roll of Honour – Denys Lionel Page". Bletchley Park. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
  8. ^ Lloyd-Jones 1981, p. 763.
  9. ^ Jocelyn 1997, p. 335–7.
  10. ^ Lloyd-Jones 1981, p. 764.
  11. ^ Lloyd-Jones 1981, p. 767–8.
  12. ^ "CUCC Presidents". Cambridge University Cricket Club. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
  13. ^ Davison 1957.
  14. ^ a b Lloyd-Jones 1981, p. 767.
  15. ^ Winnington-Ingram 1959.
  16. ^ a b c Lloyd-Jones 1981, p. 768.
  17. ^ Rutherford, Ian. "Greek Poetry: Elegiac and Lyric". Oxford Bibliographies. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
  18. ^ Kirkwood 1964, p. 329.
  19. ^ Winnington-Ingram 1959, p. 23–5.
  20. ^ Phillips 1939, p. 174.
  21. ^ Lloyd-Jones 1981, p. 768–9.
  22. ^ Davison 1956, p. 209–211.
  23. ^ Lloyd-Jones 1981, p. 765.
  24. ^ Montanari 2003.

Works cited

Academic offices
Preceded by
Cambridge University

1950 to 1973
Succeeded by
Preceded by
1959 to 1973
Succeeded by