Dacier, Anne

Anne Dacier, née Lefèbvre, (born 1654, Preuilly-sur-Claise, Fr.—died Aug. 17, 1720, Paris), classical commentator, translator, and editor, famous throughout Europe for her translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey, for her part in the French literary controversy between the “ancients and moderns,” and for her work, with her husband, André Dacier, on the famous Delphin series of editions of Latin classics.

Anne Dacier was the daughter of a French Humanist, Tanneguy Lefèbvre, who educated her and launched her in the field of classical studies. In 1683 she married one of her father’s students, André Dacier (also engaged in classical studies and translations), whose work was far inferior to hers. Prior to her marriage, Mme Dacier had already produced notable translations, and her translations in prose of the Iliad (1699) and the Odyssey (1708) brought her renown throughout Europe, particularly among French men of letters. It was partly through these translations that a literary dispute known since as the querelle des anciens et des modernes arose as a contest of the merits of classical as opposed to contemporary authors (see ancients and moderns). One of her important works on the subject was Des Causes de la corruption de goût (1714; “Of the Causes of the Corruption of Taste”).