Ballad Blast

Really? Rapping The Odyssey? Really. A discussion of the oral tradition of story telling and its links to Epic poetry sets the stage for a series of activities that encourage improvisation to integrate music into other classrooms....

Epics, like the Odyssey, were told over the span of several days and drew quite a crowd. Before starting the famous work with your class, review this presentation to gain some insight into the structure and history of epic poems. 

The narrator begins his presentation on The Odyssey with background information about Homer, the Trojan Wars, the oral tradition, epic poetry, and plot summaries of The Illiad and The Odyssey. And all in under four minutes. The narrator...

Using Walt Whitman's Song of Myself and Hart Crane's The Bridge as models, class groups first craft their own epic poems for 1900 and, using primary sources, create a multi-media presentation that captures the sights and...

Looking for a list of reading questions to use with The Odyssey? Provided here are dozens of questions (although certain sections are left out). Use these questions to create your own reading guide for the famous epic poem. 

Was there really a guy named Homer? Was the Odyssey written by one man or many? Are the stories original or a retelling of well-known myths? It may not contain all the information that viewers need to know about The Odyssey but this...

Learners analyze the epic poem form and its roots in oral tradition. In this epic poetry lesson, students research the epic hero cycle and recognize the pattern of events and elements. Learners analyze the patterns embedded in the stories.

Review all things Homeric with this quiz! It covers the plot of The Odyssey, along with technical questions about poetic meter and stressed syllables. The Greek language is on display with Homer's writings and with this quiz.

This is the complete text of the prose version of the epic poem The Odyssey (prose) by Homer including all 24 books.