Homer’s Odyssey

Course Description

Odysseus is indeed epic literature’s “man of many turns.” He is a warrior, a creative, an aesthete, a fiction-maker, a revealer, a concealer and at times a rascal. He is both favored and cursed by the gods. But above all, he is a deeply wounded soul from years of constant battle in Troy. His one desire is to return home to Ithaca to his beloved Penelope and his son Telemachos, Homer’s epic is then, the story of a wounded homecoming that heals.

In another sense, the Odyssey is a brilliant mythopoetic exploration of the power of stories and how our identities are entangled in the narratives we tell ourselves and others. A willingness to learn from the wisdom of others is prominent throughout the epic.

Homer’s epic explores as well as the conjunction of the masculine and feminine energies that together create in the soul a “sweet agreement” between these fundamental elements in human life. It extends outward to embrace the entire community of Ithaca in the act of oath-taking to achieve a balanced accord and healing throughout the polis. 

Prior knowledge of The Odyssey is not required, only a willingness to explore. Join us in learning the deep significance of the soul’s journey from fragmentation to wholeness against the backdrop of Homer’s enduring epic. 

Required Reading
Dennis Patrick Slattery, From War to Wonder: Recovering Your Personal Myth Through Homer’s Odyssey (Mandorla Books, 2019).

Suggested Reading
Albert Cook’s translation of the Odyssey is cited throughout my book. The Odyssey. A Verse Translation. W.W. Norton, 1993.

The course will consist of 9 monthly meetings, beginning January 15, 2025. We will meet for 2 hours, followed by a break-out group of 30 minutes in which participants will entertain one or two questions that either Dr. Slattery will provide or grow organically from the presentation and your questions.

Enjoy free access to a bonus class with Dr.Slattery on November 11th 2024 prior to the start of the program in January 2025!

This program is ideal if

• You wish to explore the power of stories as healing agents for the soul.
• You are interested in the voyage, the journey and the odyssey of your life.
• You desire to learn more about mythopoesis, the making or shaping of coherence and meaning in your life story and its relation to your larger community.
• You want to learn more about the archetypal patterning in life’s events and how they can be turned into opportunities for personal and collective growth.

Course Overview

The format will concentrate on specific passages from the epic, chosen from Dr. Slattery’s book, From War to Wonder: Recovering Your Personal Myth Through Homer’s Odyssey.

Bonus Class on Nov 11:  This 30 minute bonus class with Dr.Slattery will cover two essential ideas:

1. Why do we bother reading these classics of literature?What kind of knowledge do they offer us today in our contemporary and very warring world? How might reading communally passages from Homer’s poem allow deeper conversations on our human condition that has not changed essentially since Homer’s time?
2. What are the large archetypal themes that Homer’s classic epic offers us to meditate on, regarding our own personal and collective mythologies?

• Class 1: Wednesday, January 15. I. Books I-IV: The Birth of Self-Awareness: The Search for Stories.
• Class 2: Wednesday, February 12, Books I-IV (continued).
• Class 3: Wednesday, March 12 , II: Books V-VIII. From Hiddenness to Community: Wandering Towards Wonder.
• Class 4: Wednesday, April 9, III. Books IX-XII. Reclaiming a Coherent Life: The Myth of Remembrance.
• Class 5: Wednesday May 7, Books IX-XII (continued).
• Class 6: Wednesday June 4, IV: Books XIII-XVI. Home to the Unfamiliar: Crafting, Revealing and Concealing.
• Class 7: Wednesday July 9, Books XVII-XX. Reclaiming Oneself: Cleansing the Household.
• Class 8: Wednesday August 13, Books XVII-XX (continued).
• Class 9: Wednesday September 10, Books XXI-XXIV. From Reunion to Unity: The Weight of Words Over Weapons of War.

By the end of this course, you will be able to

• Describe and understand more fully the deep wounding of warriors returning from battle.
• Explain the suffering of being alienated from home and the struggles one endures to align their transformed selves to a home that is now unfamiliar.
• Appreciate more fully the transformative healing in telling one’s wounded stories and learning to listen more deeply to the painful narratives of others.
• Discern the complexities involved in finding a balance in the tensions inhabiting the returnee.