NOTICE: This is an older course recorded with Adobe Connect and/or Vimeo recordings. We are currently working to replace the recordings with new Zoom recordings.  Please don't hesitate to email us at homeschoolconnections@gmail.com with any questions.

Dear Student,

This course is scheduled to be retired on June 30, 2025.  You may continue using this course; however, we highly suggest moving to the new, updated course.  

The Iliad by Homer with Joseph Pearce

Instructor Access (Optional grading support) is available for this course. Please note: this is ONLY recommended if you wish to write the optional paper. All quizzes are internally graded in this course. Optional papers will be completed via this page (click here) for an Instructor Access fee of $75.

How to get the most out of Iliad:  The Glory and the Will of God with Henry Russell, Ph.D.:

• First, read the course materials below before the first class meeting.

• Then have a notebook ready and available for class notes for each recorded session.

• Read assignments before attending class.

• Do the assignments, quizzes, and any extra work assigned for that week.

• Once the course is completed to the parent's and professor’s satisfaction, there is a Certificate of Completion at the end to be filled in for your records.

Total Classes: 13

Duration: 55 minutes

Prerequisite: The ability to read two chapters per week with understanding.

Suggested Grade Level: 9th to 12th grade

Suggested Credit: One full semester Literature or Ancient Literature

Class Instructor: Henry Russell, Ph.D.

Course Description: The Iliad could justly be called the Tragedy of Achilles.  It focuses on the anger of that matchless warrior and how he destroys what he loves best, by seeking only his own glory.  Homer’s other Greek and Trojan heroes show how much a nation needs to be a unified people, obeying the will of god if they are to thrive, or even survive.  We mourn for the tragedy of Hektor and his people, many of them very admirable, but caught up in the punishment for the sins of Paris. This epic poem and the Odyssey are bedrocks of the teaching of how to be a nobleman or woman in the Classical World or the modern world.  Liberal Education begins here—and it is great fun!

Course Outline:

• Week 1 - Background on Epics and on Homer

• Week 2 - Chapters 1 -2: Anger and Three False Tests

• Week 3 - Chapters 3-4: Attempted Peace and Treachery

• Week 4 - Chapters 5-6: Fighting Gods and Friends; Hektor’s Family Sorrows

• Week 5 -Chapters 7-8: Hektor and Ajax Fight;  The Greeks are Beseiged

• Week 6 -Chapters 9-10: Zeus is All-Father; Agamemnon Acts for the Good of All; Night Raiders

• Week 7 - Chapters 11-12: Agamemnon’s Wrath; Nestor’s Wisdom; Hektor’s Wrath

• Week 8 -Chapters 13-14: Hektor Triumphs, Agamemnon Breaks; Zeus Sleeps

• Week 9 -Chapters 15-16: Zeus is Above All; Patroklos’ Sacrifice

• Week 10-Chapters 17-18: Getting What We Ask For; The Great Shield of Achilles

• Week 11 - Chapters 19-20: Achilles Never Learns; Wild for Battle

• Week 12- Chapters 21-22: The Nihilistic Wrath; Hektor’s Last Battle

• Week 13 -Chapters 23-24: Honoring the Dead; Achilles Learns his Limit.

Course Materials: Homer, The Iliad. The Robert Fitzgerald (Anchor Books) translation is highly recommended (ISBN: 0385059418).  Any translation you use should have line numbers.

Homework: Each week you will read two chapters of the epic. That will take about 1 to 1.5 hours for most readers.  There will be weekly automated-graded quizzes available for immediate feedback, as well as two exams, one in the middle and one at the end of the course. 

If you have any questions please contact us at homeschoolconnections@gmail.com.

©2019 Homeschool Connections and Henry Russell, Ph.D.. All rights reserved. This course is designed by Henry Russell, Ph.D..

• This material is only to be used for its intended purpose by active subscribers of Homeschool Connections. Any other use without explicit permission is in violation of the seventh commandment (yes, the 7th commandment) and in violation of US and International copyright laws.

• You may print or download to local hard disk extracts for your personal homeschool and non-commercial use only. This is not to be used for homeschool co-ops without express written permission from Homeschool Connections.