Born in Chartres, Eure-et-Loir, she studied at the Lycée Molière, where she was won the Concours général in Latin and took second prize in Greek in 1930. She then prepared for the École Normale Supérieure at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. She entered the class of 1933 of the ENS Ulm. She then passed the agrégation in classics in 1936, and became a doctor of letters in 1947.

After having taught for some time in a school, she became a professor first at the University of Lille and subsequently at the Sorbonne from 1957 to 1973. She was then elevated to the chair of Greek and the development of moral and political thought at the Collège de France ... the first woman nominated to this prestigious institution. In 1988, she was the second woman (after Marguerite Yourcenar) to enter the Académie Française, being elected to Chair #7, previously occupied by André Roussin. In 1995, she obtained Greek nationality and in 2000 was nominated Ambassador of Hellenism by the Greek government.

She was at one time president of the Association Guillaume Budé, and remains the honorary president of that institution.