Benedict Whalen on “The Iliad and the Odyssey” set. Courtesy | Jeremiah Regan

Hillsdale will release “The Iliad and the Odyssey,” an on­line course about the two epic poems by Homer this spring.

“They are masterful and delightful stories, essential to understanding Western literature, and books that we require all students at Hills­dale to read,” said Jeremiah Regan ’08, executive director of online learning at Hillsdale College.

Dean of Humanities Ste­phen Smith will deliver 12 lectures on “The Iliad,” and Associate Professor of En­glish Benedict Whalen will give 12 lectures on “The Od­yssey.”

Christopher Nolan, a Hol­lywood filmmaker known for films such as “Inception,” “Interstellar,” and “Oppen­heimer,” will release a film adaptation of “The Odyssey” on July 17, 2026. Regan said the College wanted to capital­ize on the popularity of what will probably be one of the highest grossing films next year.

“The impending release of Christopher Nolan’s ‘Od­yssey’ movie in July 2026 made the tim­ing right to share Hills­dale’s teach­ing on these great books with the coun­try,” Regan said.

“This is a wonderful op­portunity for me to deep­en what I’ve been doing for years in Great Books,” Whalen said. “I empha­sized some of the great mo­ments in the text that we cover here in the core curriculum, but I also did additional background re­search to shape out these lec­tures.”

Sophomore Faith Walessa studied the Odyssey in Great Books: Western Tradition with Whalen last spring.

“Reading with Dr. Whalen is what it must be like to read alongside its author,” Walessa said. “I’ve never taken a class that took me so far inside the mind of a writer, with an acute sen­sitivity to the wit and style of individual words, and their broader implications on questions of human na­ture.”

For these courses, Hills­dale partnered with Distant Moon Produc­tions, which is also produc­ing the “Story of America” docuseries in conjunction with Hills­dale College and the White House for the 250th anniver­sary of America. Whalen said the producers made the sets match the aesthetic of the books themselves.

“They built a Greek temple with statues and a beautiful Mediterranean scene in the background,” Whalen said.

There is more coming from Hillsdale Online Learning. Whalen also said he filmed a course on “Moby Dick” in January, which has yet to be released.

These projects are part of a larger push to make more Hillsdale content avail­able and encourage students around the country to enhance their own education, accord­ing to Regan.

“The goals of the courses are to provide a compelling overview of the poems, cause students to fall in love with Homer, and, ultimately, to read the books themselves,” Regan said.