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Reading schedule · Grades 7–12

The Iliad in 6 Weeks: A Reading Schedule

A six-week plan for reading Homer's Iliad in translation, four books a week. Each week gives the reading, a short summary of what happens, three discussion questions and the escape room that goes with it. For grades 7–12, in class or at home.

Pacing

Four books a week works out at roughly a book a day, which leaves a day for discussion and a day for the escape room. Students from grade 7 can manage this pace in a good translation; younger or slower readers can take two weeks over a section without losing the shape of the plan.

Each week ends with an escape room on that week's reading: seven self-checking locks that run in any browser, with no logins, and progress is saved, so a room can be finished another day. Every room has free taster locks to try, and members can open them all.

Print this schedule Escape rooms on The Iliad

Week 1: Books 1–4

Read: Books 1–4

Apollo sends a plague on the Greek camp until Agamemnon gives back the daughter of the god's priest, and in his anger Agamemnon takes Achilles' prize, Briseis. Achilles withdraws from the fighting and asks his mother Thetis to win Zeus's help for the Trojans; Zeus sends Agamemnon a false dream, a duel between Paris and Menelaus settles nothing, and the truce is broken.

Discussion questions

1. Who is more to blame for the quarrel, Achilles or Agamemnon?
2. What does Achilles' request to Thetis show about his priorities?
3. Why does the duel between Paris and Menelaus settle nothing?

Escape room: The Quarrel (lockedlessons.com/rooms/iliad-books-1-4/)

Week 2: Books 5–8

Read: Books 5–8

Diomedes has a day of glory, and he and the Trojan ally Glaucus refuse to fight when they find that their families are bound by guest-friendship. Hector goes into Troy and says farewell to his wife and son, fights Ajax in a duel that ends in an exchange of gifts, the Greeks build a wall round their ships, and Zeus weighs the fates in his golden scales.

Discussion questions

1. What does the meeting of Glaucus and Diomedes show about the values of these warriors?
2. What does Hector's farewell to his family reveal about him?
3. How does Zeus's support change the course of the war in these books?

Escape room: The Farewell (lockedlessons.com/rooms/iliad-books-5-8/)

Week 3: Books 9–12

Read: Books 9–12

With the Trojans camped on the plain, Agamemnon sends an embassy to offer Achilles gifts if he will return, but Achilles refuses. Odysseus and Diomedes make a night raid on the Trojan camp, the next day the Greek leaders are wounded one after another, and Hector attacks the Greek wall.

Discussion questions

1. Why does Achilles turn down the embassy's offer?
2. Which appeal to Achilles is most persuasive, and why does none succeed?
3. How does the night raid differ from the fighting by day?

Escape room: The Embassy (lockedlessons.com/rooms/iliad-books-9-12/)

Week 4: Books 13–16

Read: Books 13–16

Poseidon helps the Greeks behind Zeus's back, and Hera deceives Zeus so that they can rally. Zeus wakes and turns the battle again, the Trojans reach the ships and set one alight, and Patroclus goes into battle in Achilles' armour, drives the Trojans back and is killed by Hector.

Discussion questions

1. How do the gods' quarrels affect the human battle?
2. Why does Achilles let Patroclus fight in his place?
3. Is Patroclus's death his own fault, Achilles' or the gods'?

Escape room: Fire at the Ships (lockedlessons.com/rooms/iliad-books-13-16/)

Week 5: Books 17–20

Read: Books 17–20

Greeks and Trojans fight over the body of Patroclus. Achilles' grief is overwhelming; a god makes him new armour, Achilles ends his quarrel with Agamemnon, and he returns to battle.

Discussion questions

1. How does Achilles' grief change him?
2. What scenes are shown on the new shield, and why might they matter?
3. What is the end of the quarrel worth to each man?

Escape room: The Fallen Friend (lockedlessons.com/rooms/iliad-books-17-20/)

Week 6: Books 21–24

Read: Books 21–24

Achilles fights the river god himself, and the gods battle one another. He kills Hector and drags his body, holds funeral games for Patroclus, and at last the old king Priam comes to his hut by night to ransom his son's body.

Discussion questions

1. How does Achilles' treatment of Hector's body reflect his state of mind?
2. What do Priam and Achilles come to understand about each other?
3. Why might the poem end with a funeral rather than the fall of Troy?

Escape room: The Ransom (lockedlessons.com/rooms/iliad-books-21-24/)

Nothing in this schedule is quoted from any translation, so it can sit beside whichever one your class reads.