James A. Notopoulos

James Anastasios Notopoulos (July 4, 1905, Altoona, Pennsylvania – October 17, 1967, West Hartford, Connecticut) was a Greek-American scholar of classical antiquity and a Homerist in particular. He also recorded and published folk songs from Greece and Cyprus.

Early life and education Notopoulos's parents were from Greece and emigrated to the United States in the early 20th century. His father was Anastasios Nicholas Notopoulos , born in the 19th century in Tripoli, died in May 1960, in Pinellas, Florida. His mother was Helen Ververis, born in Greece. They were married on August 29, 1903, in Tripoli, and had seven children. Then he attained a bachelor of arts degree in 1928 from Amherst College, and an master of arts in 1934 from Jesus College, Oxford.

Notopoulos is best known for his studies of Plato's influence on Shelley, and of Homer as an oral poet. One of his major works is The Platonism of Shelley. Notopoulos went on to write essays on classical influences on Byron, Keats, Emerson, Yeats, T. E. Lawrence, and Nikos Kazantzakis. He was also interested in Greek epigraphy, to which he had been introduced by Tod of Oxford and Ferguson of Harvard. During his research, he was based in the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, where he was serving as visiting professor and from which he embarked on field trips until August 1953.

After his death in 1967, Notopoulos's widow donated his archive to Harvard. The James A. Notopoulos Collection of Modern Greek Ballads and Songs is part of the Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature. The James A. Notopoulos Collection (approximately 50 reel-to-reel audio tapes) is at Harvard University's Widener Library. Notopoulos died on 17 October 1967 at the age of 62.

Publications The Divided Line of the Platonic Tradition. The Journal of Philosophy, 32 (1935) 57- 66. Movement in the Divided Line of Plato’s Republic. Harvard Studies in Classical Phi lology, 47 (1936) 57-63. "Mnemosyne in Oral Literature". Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, 69, 465–493, DOI: 10.2307/283194 (1938) The Name of Plato. Classical Philology, 34 (1939) 284-293. Porphyry’s Life of Plato. Classical Philology 35 (1940) 135-145. Agamemnon 445-447. The Classical Journal 36 (1940) 167-168. "The Slaves at the Battle of Marathon". The American Journal of Philology, 62 (3), 352–354, DOI: 10.2307/291670 (1941) Plato’s Epitaph. American Journal of Philology, 63 (1942) 272-293. Socrates and the Sun. The Classical Journal, il (1942) 260-274. Ferguson’s Law in Athens under the Empire.Transactions of the American Philological Association, 64 (1943) 44-65. "The Symbolism of the Sun and Light in the Republic of Plato, II". Classical Philology, 39 (4), 163–172 and 223–240 (1944) The Date of the Creation of Hadrianis. Transactions of the American Philological As sociation, 77 (1946) 53-56. Notes on Athenian Inscriptions of the Empire Period. American Journal ofPhilology, 69 (1948) 515-519. Parataxis in Homer: A New Approach to Homeric Literary Criticism. Transactions oftheAmericanPhilologicalAssociation,80(1949)1-23. "The Generic and Oral Composition in Homer". Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, 81, 28–36. DOI: 10.2307/283566 (1950) Epigraphical Notes, Hesperia 20 (1951) 64-66. Composition by Theme in Homer and in the South-slavic Epos. Ibidem 62 70–80 (1951) "The Warrior as an Oral Poet: A Case History". The Classical Weekly, 46 (2), 17–19 DOI: 10.2307/4343240 (1952) "Homer and Cretan Heroic Poetry: A Study in Comparative Oral Poetry I. The Song of Daskaloyannes". The American Journal of Philology, 73 (3), 225–250. DOI: 10.2307/292135 (1952) Yearbook of the American Philosophical Society 1953, 249-253. "The Introduction of Alphabet into Oral Societies". Προσφορά είς Στίλβωνα ΚνριακΙδην, Thessaloniki, 516–524 (1953) "New Sources on Lord Byron at Missolonghi". Keats-Shelley Journal, 4, 31–45 (1955) "Homeric Similes in the Light of Oral Poetry". The Classical Journal, 52(7), 323–328 (1957) "Homer and Geometric Ant. A Comparative Study in the Formulaic Technique of Composition". Άθηνά 61, 65–93. (1957) "Byzantium in the Thought and Poetry of William Butler Keats". Πεπραγμένα Θ' Διε­θνούς Βνζαντινολογικοϋ Συνεδρίου, 3, Thessaloniki, 188–199. (1958) "Homer, Hesiod and the Achaean Heritage of Oral Poetry". Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 29(2), 177–197. DOI: 10.2307/147293 (1960) "The Genesis of an Oral Heroic Poem". Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 3(2/3), 135–144. (1960). "Folk dances of Greece" in the: Collection of Pamphlets on Folk Dances and Songs. Folkways Records and Service Corporation (1961) "The Homeric Hymns as Oral Poetry; A Study of the Post-Homeric Oral Tradition". The American Journal of Philology, 83 (4), 337–368. DOI: 10.2307/292918 (1962) "Akritan Ikonography on Byzantine Pottery". Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 33 (2), 108–133, DOI: 10.2307/147182 (1964) "Studies in Early Greek Oral Poetry". Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 68, 1–77, DOI: 10.2307/310798 (1964) "'Truth-Beauty' in the 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' and the Elgin Marbles". The Modern Language Review, 61 (2), 180–182, DOI: 10.2307/3720744 (1966) Homer and the Contemporary Heroic Oral Poetry: A Study of Comparative Oral Literature (1967) The Platonism of Shelley: A Study of Platonism and the Poetic Mind (1969)

Discography All released by Folkways Records of New York City: Folk Music of Greece (FE 4454; previously released as P 454) (1955) Folk Dances of Greece (FE 4467) (1956) Modern Greek Heroic Oral Poetry (FE 4468) (1959)