Classical Reference Library
Resources for exploring, reading, and teaching Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and the epic tradition.
HOMER & THE EPIC TRADITION
Ian Johnston explores the enduring appeal of Homer’s Odyssey, examining its narrative structure, its celebration of home and family, and the transformation of Odysseus from warrior to returning husband, father, and king.
Read resource →THE ODYSSEY • QUIZ
A ready-to-use 10-question reading quiz covering Books 1–4 of Homer’s Odyssey, including Athena’s guidance, Telemachus’s growing independence, the suitors, and his visits to Nestor and Menelaus. Includes a free printable student PDF for classroom use.
Read resource →THE ODYSSEY • QUIZ
A ready-to-use 10-question reading quiz covering Books 13-16 of Homer's Odyssey, including Odysseus's return to Ithaca, Eumaeus, Telemachus's homecoming, the suitors' ambush, and the reunion of Odysseus and Telemachus. Includes a free printable student PDF for classroom use.
Read resource →THE ODYSSEY • QUIZ
A ready-to-use 10-question reading quiz covering Books 17-20 of Homer's Odyssey, including Odysseus's return to the palace in disguise, the suitors, Penelope, Eurycleia's recognition, and the omens that foreshadow the suitors' fate. Includes a free printable student PDF for classroom use.
Read resource →THE ODYSSEY • QUIZ
A ready-to-use 10-question reading quiz covering Books 21-24 of Homer's Odyssey, including the bow contest, the defeat of the suitors, Penelope's recognition of Odysseus, Laertes, and the final restoration of peace in Ithaca. Includes a free printable student PDF for classroom use.
Read resource →THE ODYSSEY • STUDENT GUIDE
A clear introduction to Homeric or epic similes in The Odyssey, explaining how these extended comparisons work, why Homer uses them, and how students can analyze their effect. Includes a printable student guide available by email.
Read resource →FOR STUDENTS
A clear, student-friendly guide to the essential words and ideas needed to understand Homer’s Iliad, from honor and glory to epic similes, fate, and divine intervention.
Read resource →FOR STUDENTS
A clear introduction to the Greek mythological background students need before reading Homer, including the Trojan War, the major gods, the House of Atreus, the judgment of Paris, and the events that connect The Iliad and The Odyssey.
Read resource →THE ODYSSEY • STUDENT GUIDE
A clear guide to the unusual narrative structure of Homer’s Odyssey, showing how the poem moves between Ithaca and Odysseus, uses a long flashback for the famous wanderings, and brings its separate story lines together. Includes a printable narrative-structure organizer available by email.
Read resource →FOR STUDENTS
A practical introduction for students reading Homer for the first time, with guidance on unfamiliar names, gods, heroic values, repeated language, long speeches, battle scenes, and the best ways to approach The Iliad and The Odyssey without feeling overwhelmed.
Read resource →THE ODYSSEY • STUDENT GUIDE
A student-friendly guide to important symbols and recurring motifs in Homer’s Odyssey, including the olive-tree bed, Odysseus’ bow, weaving, disguise and recognition, the sea, and omens. Includes a printable analysis organizer available by email.
Read resource →TEACHING THE CLASSICS
A classroom-oriented guide to the major characters in Homer’s Iliad, with explanations of their roles in the poem, relationships and traits to watch, and questions that help students understand Homer’s treatment of heroism, honor, leadership, war, and mortality.
Read resource →TEACHING THE CLASSICS
A classroom-oriented guide to the major characters in Homer’s Odyssey, with explanations of their roles in the story, traits and relationships to watch, and questions that help students consider why each character matters.
Read resource →TEACHING THE CLASSICS
Discussion questions for Homer’s Iliad, organized around major episodes, characters, and themes, with prompts for close reading, classroom conversation, short written responses, and longer analysis
Read resource →TEACHING THE CLASSICS
Discussion questions for Homer’s Odyssey, organized around major episodes, characters, and themes, with prompts for close reading, classroom conversation, written responses, and longer analysis.
Read resource →TEACHING THE CLASSICS
A guide to the major themes of Homer’s Odyssey, including homecoming, identity, hospitality, loyalty, temptation, leadership, mortality, divine intervention, and justice, with questions to help students connect these ideas across the poem.
Read resource →TEACHING THE CLASSICS
A guide to the major themes of Homer’s Iliad, including anger, honor, heroism, leadership, friendship, mortality, fate, grief, family, and the human cost of war, with questions to help students connect these ideas across the poem.
Read resource →TEACHING THE CLASSICS
A practical guide to teaching Homer’s Iliad, with essential background, book-by-book guidance, central themes and questions, discussion topics, writing assignments, and a flexible framework for classroom use.
Read resource →TEACHING THE CLASSICS
A practical guide to teaching Homer’s Odyssey, with background for students, book-by-book guidance, central themes and questions, discussion topics, writing assignments, and a flexible framework for classroom use.
Read resource →THE ILIAD • TEACHER GUIDE
Practical guidance for teaching Homer’s Iliad in high school, including background students actually need, suggested books for close reading, approaches to the battle scenes, discussion strategies, a flexible four-week pacing model, and assessment ideas.
Read resource →TEACHING THE CLASSICS
Practical guidance for high school teachers planning an Odyssey unit, with suggestions for pacing, choosing what to read closely, helping students manage unfamiliar material, using discussion effectively, and balancing literary analysis with the momentum of the story.
Read resource →FOR TEACHERS
A flexible four-week plan for teaching Homer’s Iliad, with suggested readings, themes, classroom activities, and assessments.
Read resource →FOR TEACHERS
Short-response questions, analytical writing prompts, and full essay assignments for studying Homer’s Iliad.
Read resource →THE ODYSSEY • TEACHER RESOURCE
A classroom-ready essay rubric for evaluating student writing on Homer’s Odyssey, with clear criteria for argument, textual evidence, analysis, organization, and writing quality. Includes a printable teacher-and-student PDF available by email.
Read resource →THE ODYSSEY • TEACHER PACK
A comprehensive printable classroom bundle for teaching Homer’s Odyssey, with unit pacing, discussion questions, worksheets, a journey map, writing assignments, literary-analysis guides, quizzes, answer keys, and assessment materials. A 46 page guide including maps and quizzes. Available as one free PDF by email.
Read resource →THE ODYSSEY • TEACHER GUIDE
A flexible high-school pacing guide for teaching all 24 books of Homer’s Odyssey, with both 4-week and 6-week unit plans, assessment checkpoints, and suggested RRP classroom resources. A free printable teacher PDF is available by email.
Read resource →The Odyssey Student Worksheet Pack
Four flexible student worksheets for tracking Odysseus's journey and its consequences, xenia and hospitality, identity and recognition, and character development across Homer's Odyssey. Designed for use throughout the poem and includes a free printable student PDF for classroom use.
Read resource →HOMER—IN HIS OWN WORDS
Selected passages from Ian Johnston's Iliad Translation
Read resource →HOMER—IN HIS OWN WORDS
Selected passages from Ian Johnston's Odyssey Translation
Read resource →A READER’S GUIDE
A Guide to the Major Characters in Homer’s Iliad
Read resource →Reference Guide by Ian Johnston
A chronological guide to the named deaths and major woundings in Homer’s Iliad, identifying the combatants, manner of death or injury, and corresponding lines in Ian Johnston’s translation.
Read resource →THE ODYSSEY • MAP
A classroom-ready map tracing one possible route of Odysseus’s travels through the Mediterranean, from Troy to Ithaca, with 14 numbered stops and book references. Includes a free printable PDF for classroom use.
Read resource →ESSAY ON THE ODYSSEY
A New Generation Discovers The Odyssey. This gives educators a new opportunity.
Read resource →TEACHING THE CLASSICS
Renewed interest in The Odyssey is bringing Homer to a new generation. The challenge for educators is helping students encounter the poem in an accessible form without sacrificing its language, ideas, and enduring questions.
Read resource →THE ENDURING ODYSSEY
For nearly three thousand years, Odysseus has remained one of literature’s most compelling heroes. His intelligence, pride, failures, endurance, and longing for home still raise questions that feel remarkably familiar: what makes a hero, what does hardship do to us, and what does it really mean to find our way home?
Read resource →THE ODYSSEY
You may never have sailed past the Sirens or faced a Cyclops, but you probably speak Homer's language more often than you realize. From odyssey and mentor to siren song, lotus-eater, and between Scylla and Charybdis, discover how a 3,000-year-old poem still lives on in the words and expressions we use today.
Read resource →BOOK TRAILER
A visual introduction to Homer’s Odyssey and its themes of endurance, cunning, hospitality, homecoming, and belonging.
Read resource →BOOK TRAILER
A visual introduction to the abridged Odyssey, preserving Homer’s epic themes of endurance, cunning, and the long search for home.
Read resource →HOMER'S ENDURING LEGACY
Recent articles, reviews, discoveries and cultural conversations surrounding Homer, The Iliad and The Odyssey
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