Classics Corner — Homer's Odyssey

Lecture Classics Corner Homer's Odyssey Tara Hayes , lecturer With Emily Wilson's 2017 translation and Christopher Nolan's July 2026 film adaptation, Homer's Odyssey is having a moment yet again. Why? Because the titular hero's 20-year journey home to his family and people — full of twists and turns — taught a culture how to understand itself. Guided by its muse-powered poet and narrator, Homer's epic continues to speak to questions of identity, loyalty, endurance and belonging. In this lecture, Tara Hayes examines why The Odyssey continues to teach us, even today. This presentation is part of Tara Hayes' Classics Corner series. This year's season focuses on the journey. The quest. The odyssey. The path. Whether travel is undertaken individually or in a group, whether the obstacles to overcome are monsters of enormous size or personal fears and anxieties, whether or not the treasure or destination sought is actually found, all progress leads to the most significant of achievements: self-knowledge. The three foundational texts of the Western literary tradition with which Classics Corner returns in 2027 each take the reader on a particular journey and reveal that it is always the search itself that matters most.