Homer’s The Odyssey is not merely an ancient tale of monsters and wanderings. It is the foundational epic of Western literature and the story of how the human spirit comes to consciousness. As Odysseus travels home he transforms from a man of cunning to a man of wisdom.

You will see yourself reflected in Odysseus — a story that transcends place and time. As human beings we all search for our home and order in the world.

To understand The Odyssey is to understand nostos—the painful, beautiful, and necessary struggle to return home, to reclaim one's identity, and to restore order to a world in chaos. 

Under the spiritual guidance of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and technique, Odysseus acts not on impulse, but on reason. The Odyssey is a text of human education, Paideia,

In this exclusive 5-week seminar, we will read Homer’s masterwork not as a dead historical artefact, but as a living ethical guide for navigating the tempests of our modern age.

All live sessions are hosted live and interactively at 4p-6pm from Italy, aligning ideally with both European afternoons and US mornings at 10am-12pm EST & 7-10am PST.

Enrolment will permanently close on July 8, 2026.

This course suits you if you want to engage directly with one of the great stories that shaped Western culture. The Odyssey offers a powerful account of wandering, endurance, loyalty, and the choice to live fully as a human being. Through careful reading and discussion we come to see why this epic continues to speak to us across centuries.

As founder of the Halkyon Philosophy Academy, I teach in the classical "Bildung" spirit: shaping judgment and character through attentive reading and dialogue. Students over the past six years describe my seminars as welcoming and rigorous; we slow down, follow the text and its motifs closely, and let the text speak to our lives now. I'm passionate about helping participants encountering a text such as The Odyssee not as a relic, but as a living companion for their own journeys.

In this summer course I bring a philosopher’s ear for language and a reader’s love of story to explore this foundational myth of Western culture with its themes of homecoming, hospitality, cunning, the testing of character, and achievement of wisdom.

You find more details about my curriculum vitae below.

I look forward to welcoming you in the Spirit of xenia."

Over 5 weeks we will read Homer's Odyssey together. Each two hour session begins with a lecture of about 30 minutes, followed by small group sessions and a seminar.

Participants are encouraged to present 5 minute talks during the live sessions on selected readings.

The course is limited to a small group [max. 20 participants] to allow for meaningful conversation.

We will use Richmond Lattimore's translation which is widely available.

In this intensive seminar, we will read and analyze the most significant arcs and philosophical concepts of the 24 books of The Odyssey.

• The Destruction of the Oikos in the Telemachy: The counsel of the gods (theodicy). The crisis of fatherless youth, the breakdown of hospitality (xenia), and the decay of the political-ethical house (oikos).
• The Temptation of Oblivion: Significance Calypso's island, the Lotus Eaters, and the desire to abandon one's destiny.
• The "Metaphysical" Monsters: The deeper allegorical meanings of the Cyclops, Circe, the Sirens, and Scylla.
• The Katabasis: Odysseus’s descent into the Underworld to meet Achilles and why facing mortality is crucial for the living.
• Odysseus' Revenge: Odysseus return in disguise, the testing of loyalty, the slaughter of the suitors, and the metaphysical restoration of peace in Ithaca.
  

Homer's Odyssey, together with the Iliad, stands as one of the two foundational epics of European literature and spirit. Odysseus turns away from immortality with Calypso to face the hard road of return to Ithaca. His nostos—his journey home—positions him as an agent of justice amid chaos. He differs from Achilles in his choice to live on as a mortal man. Across the poem we meet core ideas of the Western tradition: xenia (hospitality and guest-right), the growth of the hero, loyalty in the face of trials, metis (cunning intelligence) over brute force, and the enduring tension between human freedom and divine fate.

Johannes holds a PhD in philosophy from Warwick University (2018; passed without corrections). He is the founder and president of Halkyon Guild & Academy.

His research and teaching are dedicated to preserving deep cultural memory and passing it into the future. He has read and translated ancient Greek texts in the original language for over two decades.

In 2021, Springer Science published his philosophical monograph, Heidegger on Death and Being. In 2025 Halkyon Publications published his monograph Eudaimonia on Aristotle's Ethics.

That work keeps him close to the Greek sources of European thought—poetry, myth, and the search for home—that pulse through Homer.