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 Odyssey 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 Odyssey: The World Without Fathers With Dr. Henry Russell:

• First, read the course details below.

• Prepare a notebook for note-taking and homework.

• Students begin the course by clicking on the "Recording" and watching the instructor's lecture for Class One.

• Complete the Week One Activities.

• If you need review, go back and watch the recording again and/or go over the Powerpoint.

• Repeat until all classes are complete.

• Once the course is completed to the parent's satisfaction, there is a Certificate of Completion at the end to be filled in for your records. Homeschool Connections does not provide record keeping.

Total Classes: 12

Duration: 55 minutes

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

Suggested Grade Level:  9th grade and up

Suggested Credit:  One full semester credit Literature or Ancient Literature.

Instructor: Henry Russell, Ph.D.

Course Description: Dr. Russell teaches Homer’s Odyssey as the greatest hymn to marriage and fatherhood outside of the Bible.  It is also one of the West’s greatest adventure stories. It traces the quest to restore a family under attack after 20 years of the father’s absence.  But to come home, Odysseus must restore relations with the Gods, which have been broken by his fault. The Great Wanderings fill only five books out of twenty-four. The other nineteen are devoted to the restoration of the family and the kingdom. It takes Odysseus the same twelve chapters to get from the shore of his island, Ithaka, into full possession of his house in peace as it takes to get him home to Ithaka on his ten-year long quest.  These beautiful chapters on human relations, as well as the wonders of Odysseus’ purgation through his quest, make the epic a primary book of wisdom for all times and cultures.

Course Outline: (week by week)

• Week 1 - Chapters 1-2: The King’s House Abused; Preparing a Hero; The Polis Abused; Portents of Doom

• Week 2 - Chapters 3-4: An Ordered Kingdom; The Glory of Marriage

• Week 3 - Chapters 5-6:   Kalypso’s Test; Nausicaa’s Test

• Week 4 - Chapter 7-8:   A Better Kingdom; Games and Songs

• Week 5 -Chapters 9-10:   Ismaros; Lotos-Eaters; Cyclops; Men Earn Their Doom; The Divine Circe

• Week 6 - Chapters 11-12: The Lessons of the Dead; More Gifts from Circe

• Week 7 - Chapters 13-14: Home as a Strange Land of Humility; The Last Shall be First

• Week 8 - Chapters 15-16: Telemakos Grown; Reunion and Plans

• Week 9 - Chapters 17-18: Humiliations of a Hero; Penelope and Aphrodite

• Week 10 -Chapters 19-20: Penelope’s Intuitions; Men Judge Themselves

• Week 11 - Chapters 21-22: The Test of the Bow; The Cleansing of the House

• Week 12 - Chapters 23-24: Penelope’s Victory; Divine Justice

Course Materials: Homer.  The Odyssey. The Robert Fitzgerald translation (Vintage Classics) is highly recommended, ISBN: 0679728139. 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 automated-graded weekly quizzes for immediate feedback, as well as two exams, one in the middle and one at the end of the course.  Please come to class with thoughts and questions about what you have read.

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

©2020 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.