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DACIER

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 728 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DACIER , ANDR$ (1651-1722), See also:

French classical See also:scholar, was See also:born at See also:Castres in upper See also:Languedoc, on the 6th of See also:April 1651. His See also:father, a See also:Protestant See also:advocate, sent him first to the See also:academy of See also:Puy See also:Laurens, and afterwards to See also:Saumur to study under Tanneguy Lefevre. On the See also:death of Lefevre in 1672, Dacier re-moved to See also:Paris, and was appointed one of the editors of the Delphin See also:series of the See also:classics. In 1683 he married.See also:Anne Lefevre, the daughter of his old See also:tutor (see below). In 1695 he was elected member of the Academy of See also:Inscriptions, and also of the French Academy; not See also:long after, as See also:payment for his See also:share in , the "medallic" See also:history of the• See also:king's reign, he was,appointed keeper of the library of the Louvre. He died two years after his wife, on the 18th of See also:September 1722., , The most important of his See also:works were his See also:editions of Pompeius estus and Verrius See also:Flaccus, and his See also:translations of See also:Horace (with, notes), See also:Aristotle's Poetics,, the See also:Electra and See also:Oedipus Coloneus of See also:Sophocles, See also:Epictetus, See also:Hippocrates and See also:Plutarch's"Lives. His wife, ANNE LEFEVRE (1654-1720)„ French scholar and translator from the classics, was born at Saumur, probably in See also:March 1654. On her father's death in 1672 she removed to Paris, carrying with her See also:part of an edition of See also:Callimachus, which she afterwards published. This was so well received that she was engaged as one of the editors of the Delphin series of classical authors, in which she edited See also:Florus, Dictys Cretensis, Aurelius See also:Victor and See also:Eutropius. In 1681 appeared her See also:prose version of See also:Anacreon and See also:Sappho, and in the next few years; she published prose versions of See also:Terence and some of the plays of See also:Plautus and See also:Aristophanes. In 1654 she and her See also:husband retired to Castres, with the See also:object of devoting themselves to theological studies. In 1685 the result was announced in the See also:conversion to See also:Roman Catholicism of both M. and Mme Dacier, who were rewarded with a See also:pension by the king.

, In 1699 appeared the prose See also:

translation of the Iliad (followed nine years later by a similar translation of the Odyssey), which gained for her the position she occupies in French literature. The See also:appearance of this version, which made See also:Homer known for the first See also:time to many French men of letters, and among others to A. Houdart de la Motte, gave rise to a famous See also:literary controversy. In 1714 la Motte published a poetical version of the Iliad, abridged and altered to suit his own See also:taste, together with a Discours sur Homere, stating the reasons why Romer failed to satisfy his See also:critical taste. Mme Dacier replied in the same See also:year in her See also:work, See also:Des causes de la corruption du See also:goat. La Motte carried on the discussion with See also:light gaiety and badinage, and had the happiness of seeing his views supported by the See also:abbe See also:Jean Terrasson, who in ,1715 produced two volumes entitled Dissertation critique sur l'Iliade, in which he maintained that See also:science and See also:philosophy, and especially the science and philosophy of See also:Descartes, had so See also:developed the human mind that the poets of the 18th See also:century were immeasurably See also:superior to, those of See also:ancient See also:Greece. In the same year Pere C. See also:Buffier published Homere en See also:arbitrage, in which he concluded that both parties were really agreed on the ,essential point-that Homer was one of the greatest geniuses the See also:world had seen, and that, as a whole, no other poem could be preferred to his; and, soon after (on the 5th of April 1716), in the See also:house of M. de Valincourt, Mme Dacier and la Motte met at supper, and drank together to the See also:health of Homer. Nothing of importance. marks the See also:rest of Mme Dacier's See also:life. She died at the Louvre, on the 17th of See also:August 1720. See C. A.

Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, vol. ix.; J. F. See also:

Bodin, Re4herches historigues sur la ville ; de Saumur (;812-r814);;, P. J. Burette, Eloge de Mme Dacier (1721) ; Memoires de Mme de See also:Stael (1755); E. See also:Egger, L'Hellenisme en See also:France, ii. (1869); Memoires de See also:Saint-See also:Simon, iii. ; R. Rigault, Histoire de to querelle des anciens et des modernes (1856).

End of Article: DACIER

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