Tweet, O Muse: The Story of ‘The Iliad’ Comes to Twitter

A performance in Britain brings Homer's classic to the Internet age.

GettyImages-141892862crop
GettyImages-141892862crop

Achilles refuses to fight. Agamemnon is furious. Hector valiantly leads the Trojan defense. Meanwhile, the gods variously intervene in support of the Greeks or Trojans. And it’s all playing out on Twitter.

Achilles refuses to fight. Agamemnon is furious. Hector valiantly leads the Trojan defense. Meanwhile, the gods variously intervene in support of the Greeks or Trojans. And it’s all playing out on Twitter.

Homer’s The Iliad tells the story of the final stages of the Greek siege of Troy, and in a modern update to the classic, London’s Almeida Theater and the British Museum are partnering to present a reading of the full work. A group of actors are taking turns reading the work’s 18,000 lines. The whole spectacle is expected to take about 15 hours. It’s being live-streamed here and impeccably live-tweeted over at @IliadLive.

The attempt to adapt this rumination on man’s capacity in war for evil, his desire for glory, and his relationship to fate for the Internet age is really something:

Photo credit: Andrew Burton/Getty Images

Twitter: @EliasGroll

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