The Odyssey at Great Hearts

The renewed interest in the epic poem by Homer, the Odyssey, was highlighted in a recent article by Esther Zuckerman and Connor Hart in The Wall Street Journal: After 3,000 Years, People Are Finally Reading ‘The Odyssey’—at Least on Wikipedia. The article accounts for many who are familiarizing themselves with this ancient Greek text before watching the 2026 theatrical film, adapted by writer/director Christopher Nolan, on the big screen this summer. While the source material has gained momentary popularity, this timeless piece of literature has long been a staple of the curriculum at Great Hearts academies.

“Great Hearts’ time-tested and carefully designed curriculum introduces the Odyssey to 11th grade students as part of a year-long exploration of the Ancient Greek mind and character,” explained Michael Austin, Director of Curriculum for Upper Schools at Great Hearts.

While it is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and regarded as one of the most significant works of the Western canon, Austin says the story is still as captivating as it was when it was first composed in Homeric Greek around the 7th or 8th century BC. “The fantastic adventures of Odysseus, the wily explorer, make for gripping reading; but the themes of fate, of loss, of fatherhood, and of returning home speak to deep truths of human nature.”

Homer’s the Iliad depicts the final weeks of the Trojan War, right before the events of the Odyssey. The Iliad, like the Odyssey, is part of the 11^th grade curriculum and is celebrated each year at Veritas Prep with the “Iliad-a-thon,” an all-night event that goes until the early hours of the morning where the entire epic poem is read aloud in tandem by students and faculty.

Both the Iliad and the Odyssey are divided into 24 books. The epic plot of the latter follows Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, and his homecoming journey after the ten-year-long Trojan War. His journey by sea from Troy to Ithaca lasts an additional ten years, and he and his crew encounter trials and mythical threats, leaving him the sole survivor. During his 20-year absence during the war and his journey home, he is believed to be dead, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus are left to deal with a group of unruly suitors competing for Penelope’s hand in marriage.

“The poem challenges us and our students to consider more deeply what it means to be afloat, as it were, on the wine-dark sea, with nothing but our wits, and our hope, and trust in the beneficence of the world about us to make it home,” shared Austin. “We do not set sail literally as Odysseus did, but we put forth on this great journey of life, a life full of wonders and delights and torments. And thus, in Odysseus we see someone like ourselves and confront what it means to be human.”

While the interest in these books to new audiences may ebb and flow based on popular culture, the universal messages in the written words of Homer will always have a place at Great Hearts, where our scholars seek to understand the greater about about the human story and their roles in the greater conversation.

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