From Alpheus, a classicist who has not read the Harry Potter books, but who has nonetheless been unable not to notice Rowling's substantial use of allusion:

Rowling seems to love language. Even if she isn't, herself, a master of English prose, her skill with nomenclature clearly indicate that she understands the beauty and power of the English tongue: a thing English-speaking readers will respond to as long as our common speech endures. And it's not only the power of English she admires. As a classicist, I have to give props to Rowling's allegiance to Latin and Greek. Latin and, to a lesser extent, the Romance languages seem to be as much of an influence as English in her inventions of names. I especially like the names of Draco Malfoy ("Snake Badfaith") and his father Lucius -- that most suspicious of Latin praenomina, attached to such ruthless figures as Sulla and Catiline.

And how can I thank Rowling enough for having her books translated into Latin and ancient Greek (though I gather there remains some faint mystery as to whether Rowling herself was behind the latter decision)?

Rowling's devotion to the Greeks appears to be no shallow thing. I suspect that she has even been inspired, to some small extent, by the modern Greeks. This morning, when my girlfriend's copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows arrived, she pointed out to me the epigraph, a choral passage from Aeschylus's Libation-bearers about the terrible cost involved in defeating the "evil within." (This is accompanied by a second epigraph from William Penn's Fruits of Solitude.) Trust me: Bobby Kennedy may have quoted the Agamemnon at Jack's funeral, but only someone who's pretty hardcore quotes the Choephoroi. By the way, this epigraph pretty much confirmed to my satisfaction all the speculation that this book will involve a lot of soul-searching, and a whole lot of blood.

I still doubt whether Deathly Hallows will turn young readers on to Greek tragedy, but if I start hearing that the seventh book lives up to the promise of its epigraph, then -- who knows? -- even I, someday, may have to try to read these books after all.