Skip to main content

Error: Your device, VPN, or network is blocking some parts of Caravel.

Please check your settings and refresh the page.

Enroll in Recorded Course

You must be logged in to enroll.

Thumbnail
Course name
Epic and the Person, Part One (College Level) with Henry Russell
Recorded course taught by Henry Russell for High School Survey Literature
Category
Literature ➤ Survey Literature
Grade
High School
Semester
Recorded
Summary

Sign up today for this Epic course, which traces the vision of what it means to be human through the study of the epics of Greece, Rome, and the Catholic world.

Instructor: Dr. Henry Russell

Course Description: The full two-semester course invites students to explore changing relations between the individual and society in and through classic examples of Western epic. Course readings allow students to see both continuity and difference in the passages from Greek and Roman epics (e.g., The Iliad and The Aeneid) to Dante’s Christian masterpiece, The Divine Comedy. St. Augustine’s reflections on the soul in the Confessions provide an important hinge in the course as we explore the movement from pagan classical to medieval Christian conceptions of culture, society, and selfhood.

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.

Special notes

This is Part One of a two-semester course.

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.

Total classes

15

Duration

55 minutes

Prerequisites

The ability to read the works.

Suggested grade level

11th to 12th grade. Advanced 9th- and 10th-grade students are welcomed.

Suggested credit

One full semester of Literature. For a full-year credit, follow with Epic and the Person Part Two

Outline

Class One: Homer, The Iliad, Bks. 1-3, (skim these lines in Bk. 2, ll.484-877)

Class Two: The Iliad, Bks.4-6

Class Three: The Iliad, Bks. 8, 9, 15 ll.1-272, 16

Class Four: The Iliad, Bks. 18, 19, 20

Class Five: The Iliad, Bks. 21, 22, 24

Class Six: The Odyssey, Bks. 1,3,5, 9

Class Seven: The Odyssey, Bks. 10-12, 13-14

Class Eight: The Odyssey, Bks. 16, 18, 19, 20

Class Nine: The Odyssey, Bks. 21-24

Class Ten: The Aeneid, Bks. 1-2

Class Eleven: The Aeneid, Bks. 3-4

Class Twelve: The Aeneid, Bks. 5-6, (skim these lines in Bk. 6, ll. 1058-1165)

Class Thirteen: The Aeneid, Bks. 7-8. (skim these lines in Bk.7 890-1122)

Class Fourteen: The Aeneid, Bks. 9-10 (skim these lines in Bk. 10 ll.182-296, 424-605, 755-1064)

Class Fifteen: The Aeneid, Bks. 11-12

Materials

Homer, The Iliad, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux) ISBN: 0374529051 (https://amzn.to/4cGrUus); Homer, The Odyssey of Homer, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, (Farrar Strauss and Giroux) ISBN: 0374525749 (https://amzn.to/4aGh6Lg); and Virgil, The Aeneid, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, (Vintage) ISBN: 9780679729525 (https://amzn.to/49ldHQI).

Homework

Expect to spend two to three hours of reading per class. There will be auto-graded quizzes after each class for immediate feedback as well as (optional) writing prompts for each class. There will be an automatic graded midterm and final.

**Note that all the paper prompts are optional and must be graded by the parents.

Course name
Epic and the Person, Part One (College Level) with Henry Russell
Instructor
Henry Russell
Semester
Recorded
Category
Literature ➤ Survey Literature
Grade levels
High School
Editors
Sophia Russell, Mary Catherine Russell, Gianna Cunningham
Start time
September 3rd, 2024 at 10:00 AM ET
Course type
Recorded, free with subscription
Relative due dates
Relative due dates are disabled for this course.
Enhanced quiz security
Enhanced assignment security

Image for item
Henry Russell
maryshire@gmail.com

About Henry Russell

A graduate of Princeton and South Carolina (MS), Dr. Henry Russell completed his graduate work at Louisiana State University. Formerly the Chairman of Ave Maria College’s Department of Literature, he has also been a professor at Franciscan University of Steubenville and Wake Forest University. He is a founding faculty member of the St. Robert Southwell Creative Writing Workshop held in Mahwah, New Jersey.

Dr. Russell is Headmaster of the St. Augustine’s Homeschool Enrichment Program, which he founded with his wife Crystal. The program began in Fall 2005 with 20 students in two living rooms and now tutors more than 140 students in three locations.

Dr. Russell’s works include The Catholic Shakespeare Audio Series. He was the Associate Editor of The Formalist from 1990-2004 and his writings have been published in various journals. He was honored to edit Dr. Alice von Hildebrand’s groundbreaking volume, The Privilege of Being a Woman.

Click here for more info about Dr. Russell!

See Courses & Videos

  • The Catholic Shakespeare: A Contrast of Kings: Macbeth and Julius Caesar

  • The Catholic Shakespeare: Early and Late Comedies: A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest

  • The Hobbit or There and Back Again as Gateway to J.R.R.Tolkien

  • The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

  • The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

  • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

  • Beowulf and Christ

  • Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer; Trust God and Tradition

  • The Man Who Was Thursday by Chesterton (Modern Catholic Classics Series)

  • The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis (Modern Catholic Classics Series)

  • Homer’s Odyssey; The Soul of Pre-Socratic Wisdom

  • The Iliad: Glory and the Will of God

  • King Arthur and Christ: Heroism and Holiness

  • Medieval Literature for Modern Catholics

  • Scarlet Letter

  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; Chivalry, Courtesy and Chastity

  • Sophocles and Tragedy

  • Virgil’s Aeneid: The Founding of Nations in the Will of God

  • Death Comes for the Archbishop (American Classics Series)

  • Redemptive Comedy of Flannery O’Connor (American Classics Series) 

  • Inferno (Hell) by Dante

  • Purgatorio (Purgatory) by Dante

  • Dante’s Paradiso (Heaven)