Last year my family joined a local classical Christian homeschooling co-op that meets once a week for tutorials. I taught the literature class for 9th-12th graders, and it was a wonderful experience. I hope to post more about last year's class soon.

The co-op uses George Grant's Gileskirk Humanities curriculum for grades 9-12, so the literature class is partly derived from the Gileskirk reading list (with a few tweaks of my own).

Here's the list for the upcoming school year:

Mythology by Edith Hamilton (Assigned for summer reading. A classic introduction to Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology. I remember reading this in 7th grade . . . for Latin class, I think.)

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Rasselas by Samuel Johnson (OK, this isn’t ancient lit—but George Grant includes it in Gileskirk with the study of Proverbs because it deals with issues of wisdom. A former student praised it highly, and I’m also interested because it’s the book Helen Burns is reading in Jane Eyre, so I decided to include it.

The Iliad by Homer

The Odyssey by Homer

Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Euminides by Aeschylus

Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone by Sophocles

The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans by Plutarch

The Aeneid by Virgil

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare (another divergence from the literature of the period, but hey, it’s Shakespeare, and it’s about the period)

Heroes of the City of Man by Peter Leithart