“Let’s Read The Iliad!” Study Guide
For ages 14 and up (high school students and adult learners)
“Let’s Read The Iliad!” Study Guide shown alongside “The Iliad of Homer”translated by Richmond Lattimore
“The study guide was very helpful in summarizing and making connections. I think I have made progress in analyzing the story and am amazed at Homer’s skill as a poet. This Study Guide was a lot harder [than others I’ve used], but I think that is because other study guides don’t require as much thinking.”
Product Description (Catholic, Classical, Contemplative)
The Iliad by Homer is the natural starting point for any student who wishes to embark on a classical reading adventure. This Study Guide aims to equip students with the foundational knowledge and transferrable skills they need to be able to read, understand, and appreciate works of classical literature. Written by a real teacher, Ellen Finnigan, who has taught The Iliad to high school freshmen for over 13 years, it helps students slow down and learn to read again, this time more closely, analytically, and contemplatively.
Included are many ideas for assignments: argumentative and analytical writing, oral presentations, creative projects, and final projects to produce artifacts of learning. There is ample material to work with to fuel great discussion and debate.
This guide does not come with a teacher’s edition and does not have an answer key, so as to discourage the student from going on a scavenger hunt (in search of “right answers” with which to fill in blanks). Line references help the students focus their attention and engage directly with the text. (To date, no student or parent has complained about the lack of an answer key or a teacher’s edition!)
Product Details
Written for Richmond Lattimore’s translation (will not be useful for any other translation)
8 1/5 x 11, printed, spiral bound hard copy; 51 pages
Includes some historical and mythological background, prompts for close reading and analysis, questions that check for understanding, and suggestion for spiritual reflection and enrichment
Includes over 15 literary devices
Does not include The Iliad by Homer
Ways to Purchase
Note on Religion
This Study Guide is "Catholic and Classical". It deals with moral, spiritual, and philosophical questions from a Christian perspective, and it draws on the 2,000-year-old intellectual tradition of the Catholic Church to articulate and present that perspective. However, this is not a theology course. The religious content is very general and should be acceptable to any Christian, whether Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant.
Not a believer? Perhaps, you will find the religious content interesting from a cultural or historical perspective. After all, the pagans who told these stories for hundreds of years were religious people: They believed in divine beings, they engaged in religious rituals, they worshipped, they prayed. Most of them eventually converted to Christianity. This Study Guide will sometimes ask you to think about differing concepts of the divine, make connections with Sacred Scripture, or engage in introspection and spiritual reflection. If these exercises are not valuable to you, you can easily skip them, because they are clearly labeled, and you will still get a lot out of this study!