Volume 1: The Epics Companion, cover

The Epics Companion

Your guide to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey

The Epics Companion is your guide to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, designed to be paired with the Old Western Culture lectures and the Reader. It features both the Honors and the Essentials schedule, an introduction by Joe Carlson, Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric and Discussion questions for every lesson, commonplace starters, and sixteen categories of Digressios: the art, architecture, music, geography, mythology, trivia and stories that surround each lesson.

190 pages · full color · one volume per student recommended, but not consumable

Pairs withGreeks: The EpicsThe video course, 12 lectures with Wesley Callihan · from $74.75
The course
You’re buyingVolume 1: The Epics CompanionPrinted, full color
$39
QuantityShips now
Total$39

Doing the whole year? The Greeks set, Vols. 1–4 · $156
Schools and co-ops: group pricing

What’s inside

A companion to the books, not a textbook

It stays close to the texts, adds no busywork, and is built for delight. The lectures remain the backbone of the course; the Companion is what you hold while you watch and read.

The nine-week schedule

I · Schedules

Honors and Essentials, day by day, for the nine weeks of the unit.

A page of lesson questions

II · Questions

Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric and Discussion questions for every lesson, with commonplace starters.

Digressio pages on legendary shields

III · Digressios

Sixteen kinds of rabbit trail: Pictura, Musica, Geographia, Mythologia, Trivia and more.

Contents

Lesson by lesson

Contents

Introduction

About Roman Roads Press
About Old Western Culture
Why the Great Books
Build Your Own Library
Introduction to the Companion
Where the Companion fits within Old Western Culture
Common settings for using this course
Recommended schedules
Roman Roads Classics and Reader’s Guides
Stand-alone video lecture series
The Roman Roads app

Schedules

Honors nine-week schedule
Essentials nine-week schedule
Chronology of Year 1: The Greeks

Introduction to The Epics, by Joe Carlson

Lesson 1 · Introduction to Old Western Culture

Cultura Greek and Roman influences on government · Architectura on architecture · Pictura on art · Lingua on language · Geographia The Mediterranean Sea

Lesson 2 · The Backdrop of the Iliad

Mythologia The beginning of the world · Liber The Titanomachy · Pictura Minerva and the Triumph of Jupiter · Mythologia The descendants of Zeus · The cause of the Trojan War · Poetica On Homer’s birthplace, Antipater of Sidon

Lesson 3 · The Anger of Achilleus

Mythologia The Muses · Biographia Calliope · Achilleus · Agamemnon · Musica Handel’s Messiah · Geographia From Greece to Troy · Trivia Triremes · Geographia The alliances of the Iliad

Lesson 4 · The First Critical Turning Point

Biographia Hektor · Trivia The Nine Worthies · Poetica The Marriage of Hektor and Andromache, Sappho · Biographia Ares · Cultura Bronze Age armor and weaponry · Pictura The Combat of Diomedes

Lesson 5 · The Deception of Zeus

Biographia Poseidon · Hera · Poetica Deception, Lydia Sigourney

Lesson 6 · The Second Critical Turning Point

Mythologia Legendary shields · Musica The Lord is a Sun and Shield, Croft · Trivia St. Michael’s shield

Lesson 7 · The Death of Hektor

Cultura Funeral games · Archaeologia The Homeric house

Lesson 8 · The Telemachy

Biographia Penelope · Cultura Homer’s wine-dark sea · Musica La Mer, Debussy · Biographia Athene · Trivia The Palladium · Liber Tales of Troy and Greece, Andrew Lang

Lesson 9 · The Court of Alkinoös

Geographia Corfu · Poetica Corfu, Letitia Landon · Cultura The Achilleion · Litterae Magical gardens in literature · Biographia Hermes

Lesson 10 · Odysseus Tells of His Wanderings

Geographia The wanderings of Odysseus · Poetica The Lotos-Eaters, Tennyson · Vitrea Circe, C. S. Lewis · The Sirens, Tolkien · Mythologia Kirke · Scientia Whirlpools · Biographia Helios · Pictura The Odyssee-Zyklus

Lesson 11 · The Homecoming of Odysseus

Biographia Argos · Trivia Hellenic hounds · Architectura The palace of Odysseus · Biographia Hestia · Trivia The Olympic flame · Poetica Home and Love, Robert Service

Lesson 12 · The Legacy of Homer

Poetica Homer, Andrew Lang · Musica Symphony No. 2, The Odyssey, Robert W. Smith · Trivia Percussion instruments · Cultura A Greek feast · Recreatio Greek fun and games · The Epics word search

Appendices

Appendix A: For further reading and other resources · Appendix B
A Mythologia Digressio spread from The EpicsPublishing information
  • Pages190, full color
  • FormatPrinted, perfect bound
  • EditorJoe Carlson
  • PublisherRoman Roads Press, Moscow, Idaho, 2026

The music, videos and art the Companion points to are free in the Roman Roads app, for everyone.

Good to know

Questions

Companion or workbook?

Both work with the lectures. The Workbook (PDF included with the main curriculum; printed edition available as add-on) holds the questions for every lecture and reading with an answer key. The Companion is the fuller book: schedules, more questions at four levels, and the Digressios. Use it beside the workbook or in its place.

Is it consumable?

Not in the sense of a workbook you write in and use up; though we encourage students to own their own copy and write in the margins.

For a school or co-op?

Yes. Students watch the lectures at home and bring the Companion to class for discussion and reading aloud, or a teacher lectures live from it. Ask us about school pricing.