RACIER, ANDRE (1651-1722), French classical scholar, was born at Castres in upper Languedoc. In 1672 he went to Paris, and was appointed one of the editors of the Delphin series of the classics. In 1683 he married Anne Lef evre, the daughter of his old tutor (see below). As payment for his share in the "medallic" history of the king's reign, he was appointed keeper of the library of the Louvre. The most important of his works were his editions of Pompeius Festus and Verrius Flaccus, and his translations of Horace (with notes), Aristotle's Poetics, the Elec tra and Oedipus Coloneus of Sophocles, Epictetus, Hippocrates and Plutarch's Lives.
His wife, ANNE LEFEVRE (1654-172o), French scholar and translator from the classics, was born at Saumur. On her father's death in 1672 she removed to Paris, carrying with her part of an edition of Callimachus, which she afterwards published. She was engaged as one of the editors of the Delphin series of classical authors, in which she edited Florus, Dictys Cretensis, Aurelius Victor and Eutropius. In 1681 appeared her prose version of Anac reon and Sappho ; in the next few years she published prose ver sions of Terence and some of the plays of Plautus and Aristoph anes. In 1684 she and her husband retired to Castres to devote themselves to theological studies, and in 1685 they became Roman Catholics. In 1699 appeared the prose 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 appearance of this version, which made Homer known for the first time to many French men of letters, gave rise to a famous controversy with A. Houdart de la Motte and others on whether so ancient a poet still retained merit.
See P. J. Burette, Eloge de Mme. Dacier (1721) ; Memoires de Mme. de Stael ; J. F. Bodin, Recherches historiques sur la ville de Saumur (1812-14) ; R. Rigault, Histoire de la querelle des anciens et des modernes (1856) ; E. Egger, L'Hellenisme en France, ii. (1869) ; Memoires de Saint-Simon, iii. ; C. A. Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, vol. ix.