Classical Reference Library
Resources for exploring, reading, and teaching Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and the epic tradition.
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 →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 →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 →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 →ESSAY ON THE ODYSSEY
A New Generation Discovers The Odyssey. This gives educators a new opportunity.
Read resource →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 →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 →HOMER—IN HIS OWN WORDS
Selected passages from Ian Johnston's Odyssey Translation
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 →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 →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 →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.
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