The Institute for Classics Education

Odyssey. The next Odyssey seminar will be held Winter 2024. Fall 2023 Saturday Seminars

Consultations. Teachers and schools can contact the Institute via email to set up a time to speak about their community’s particular needs and goals.

Discussion groups. Teachers are invited to join our moderated Discord server to discuss the texts, ask questions, and exchange resources. To join, Contact Us with a request.

Seminars for Libraries. The Institute for Classics Education provides online seminars to introduce library patrons to the classics of ancient Greece in translation. The seminars are hosted by the library, streamed online, and presented by the Institute’s Dr. Allen. More information is here.

Reading recommendations for teachers: translations and analytical works on ancient texts vary significantly. Click here for the Institute’s position on translation and here for overviews of recommended translations for the Iliad and the Odyssey.

The ancient classics present a unique opportunity for readers to engage with profoundly foreign contexts and grapple with contrasting worldviews. Reading them can provoke us to recognize and better understand our expectations for literary texts, our aesthetic and moral values, and our most basic assumptions about truth. Yet even in moments when the world they portray can feel most alien, ancient texts can invite a deep sense of recognition of and connection to what it means to be human. 

Embracing ancient texts’ paradoxical elements is among the most challenging aspects of reading them. Cultural and linguistic contexts can enhance our experiences with these texts that can feel at once profoundly familiar and deeply strange. The Institute’s purpose is to provide, for educators and learners who teach and study Homer and ancient Greek classics in translation, a supportive community in which to explore these contexts .

The Institute’s Discord server aims to be a gathering place for teachers of ancient classics. Join the conversation to discuss the Iliad and the Odyssey, ask questions, and exchange resources for teaching the texts.

To join the Institute’s Discord server, contact us with the request.

The Institute for Classics Education is a U.S.-based 501(c)3 non-profit. Led by Dr. Eirene Allen, the Institute strives to promote critical thinking skills for the modern world by teaching the classics of ancient Greece. Fundamental to the Institute’s objectives is supporting educators who teach ancient Greek classics in English translation.

Dr. Allen earned her Ph.D from New York University, and she has taught at NYU. She usually leads the Institute’s discussion groups and seminars and is the general editor of the Institute’s publications. Her own blog is here: https://whyhomer.com/

To learn more about the Institute, its services and publications, Contact Us.