Online Literature · Classics · Epic Poetry
High fidelity online courses in Homer, Virgil, Dante and Milton — guided by an instructor who believes these poems are everyone's inheritance.
Homer
Dante
Virgil
Milton
The Iliad, the Aeneid, the Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost — four great epic poems of Western literature — are not relics. They are immortal works that speak directly to the human condition and what it means to live and live well.
Each quarter, one course. Each course, one poem. Small groups, weekly live sessions, pre-recorded lectures, and an instructor who has spent hundreds of hours learning how to make these texts come alive for modern readers.
Injustice, glory, grief and the price of life. The oldest epic in the Western tradition follows the great-souled life of Achilles, son of Peleus. We read his story not as ancient history, but as the first western tragedy.
A journey through Hell and ending in Purgatory. A course for readers who seek a true grasp of Dante before they are ready to traverse its entire expanse. Dante's first two canticles — fully built and taught.
Rome's founding epic and one of the greatest meditations on duty, love and the price of empire - captured through its hero, Aeneas - a hero who pursued greatness, and paid for it.
The most ambitious poem in the English language — Satan, free will, the Fall and what it means to be human. We close the year with Milton and the Enlightenment itself.
Iliad - E.V. Rieu Translation
The Iliad is not a poem primarily about war. It is a poem fundamentally about life and what makes it worth living — captured in grief, triumph, and in the choices that cannot be unmade. Homer's great insight is that his heroes know this, and choose glory anyway. We will sit with their choices for two and a half months.
Each week: a pre-recorded lecture to prepare and unpack the reading, a live one-hour session to discuss it together and the kind of close attention to the text that most readers never get. All sessions are recorded. Asynchronous enrollment is available.
Each pre-recorded lecture has two parts. Before you read, you listen to the introduction — essential context, background and what to look for. After you read, you return for the integrations section, which draws on copious poetic research and connects the Book to broader themes.
Recommended order: Introduction → Read the Book → Integrations. This sequence enlightens the reading experience.
Each Book gets the same three-part structure during class:
After class, students have open access to the instructor for further questions.
Pre-Class Viewing:
During Class: Introduction to the epic poetry tradition, "Homer's" biography and historical context, the Trojan War cycle and key philosophical concepts in the Iliad.
Each subsequent class covers two (sometimes three) Books of the Iliad (Books 1–24 across 11 sessions). Pre-class work includes the pre-recorded lecture and reading assignment. During class: student summaries, instructor's thematic focus, and group line discussion.
"Sing, goddess, the anger of Achilles — and the grief it brought upon the Greeks."
Homer · Iliad · Book I · Opening Line
Each course is $250. To reserve your place in the upcoming Iliad course — or to be notified when the next course opens — reach out directly. All enrollment is handled personally by Nick.
To enroll (or ask questions) email Unshelledcoast@gmail.com
and indicate your preferred payment method.
Your Instructor
The theme of my life is hero worship. I teach literature for the same reason Homer sang — because these stories matter, and the ancient flames of the heroes within are worthy of spending a lifetime fanning.
My courses are built around a simple conviction: the great epic poems are not difficult because they are obscure, but because they are deep. Given the right context, the right hierarchical structure, and the right companions for the journey, anyone can read them — and be deeply moved by them.
The Divine Comedy course is fully built. The Iliad course, for Q2 2026, is imminent. The Aeneid and Paradise Lost follow through the year.
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