Session One: May 18, 5:00–6:00 p.m. ET
Session Two: May 25, 5:00–6:00 p.m. ET
Session Three: June 1, 5:00–6:00 p.m. ET
Session Four: June 8, 5:00–6:00 p.m. ET

In this four-part seminar, students will read Homer’s The Iliad with professor Emily Wilson, chair of the department of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania. This will be a guided reading and discussion of The Iliad, read in Wilson’s translation. Students will read the whole epic together over four sessions, with six books assigned for each. 

This course will cover the complex historical background, the oral tradition, and the thorny question of how The Iliad came into being. The class will also discuss the challenges of translation. But the primary focus of the seminar will be a close reading of the epic itself, with attention to narrative structures, characterization, implicit values, similes, rhetoric, emotions, gender, heroism, mortality, and memory.

Class meets from 5:00–6:00 p.m. ET on Mondays, May 18, May 25, June 1, and June 8. All readings can be found in Wilson’s translation of The Iliad (W. W. Norton & Company, 2023).

Session One: Books 1–6
Session Two: Books 7–12
Session Three: Books 13–18
Session Four: Books 19–24

This live, virtual course is structured to encourage active participation. Registrants will receive Zoom links a week before each session, a day prior to each session, and the morning of each session. All recordings will be made available within forty-eight hours of a session. All recordings and class materials will remain available for thirty days after the final session 

Scholarship applications must be submitted by Monday, May 11, at 5 p.m. ET. 

For information on how to register, how to receive the member discount, how to apply for a scholarship, how to access recordings and course materials, and more, please visit our FAQ page.