Live-Tweeting the Trojan War

Since the advent of the Internet, there has arisen a wealth of new forms of media. These are as diverse in their use and appearance as their print media alternatives, and due to the speed and ubiquity of the Internet, they have drastically changed the ways we receive and transmit information. Many of these technologies fall under the category of social media, which increasingly focus on the personal and interactive. Most employ both the visual and the verbal, with some sites, like Instagram, all but eschewing the latter.

Of the most popular social media sites, Twitter has become the most prevalent for disseminating written messages, though posting photos is also an option. On Twitter, users may “follow” almost anyone, making it an ideal medium for celebrities, politicians, and news outlets, which often gain thousands or millions of followers. However, using Twitter includes a caveat: tweets can be no longer than 140 characters, or slightly more than the length of this sentence. Because of this brevity, Twitter is used most often to post updates, such as headlines or minutiae of one’s daily life, or public conversations between users. Although one study claimed that 40% of all tweets were “pointless babble,” clearly this has not deterred Twitter users, of whom there are over 300 million. Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, himself admits that Twitter is designed to convey “short bursts of inconsequential information.” While this format may not be ideal for transferring important information, it makes for a revolutionary way of communicating more intimate details and narratives.

Homer’s Iliad is, of course, a seminal example of a narrative and one of the most ancient and familiar stories known today. It has been translated into dozens of languages, printed on scrolls and in books, and adapted onto the stage and the screen. Through all of these different media and interpretations, it is easy to forget how the Iliad began: as an oral tradition, an epic poem to be memorized and retold by traveling rhapsodes. From this form it is easiest to see how the Iliad could be transformed into tweet mode.

The concise nature of tweets lend them to a sort of serialization when more than 140 characters’ worth of information must be conveyed. Often, this takes the form of the “live-tweet,” in which users post real-time updates and commentary on an event. When compiled, these tweets yield a narrative much like the history of the Trojan War recounted in the Iliad. This comparison was explored by the Twitter account “@IliadLive” which told the events of the Iliad via “live-tweet.” The result: a 400 tweet-long, play-by-play account that makes the Trojan War sound more like a game between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants than a 16,000 line masterpiece of epic poetry.

While this live-tweet manages to capture the narrative essence of the Iliad, it would be inaccurate to say that all is preserved. Due to the character limit on tweets, any unnecessary flourishes or descriptions must be omitted. Instead of “So saying, he balanced his spear and hurled it, but Athene with her merest breath deflected it from great Achilles, so that it returned to noble Hector and landed at his feet” we read “SPEAR CAM: Hector throws spear at Achilles. Athena blows it back. DAMAGE: none. #iliad.” The effect is a condensation of all the information relevant to the to the action, losing all the literary details that make the Iliad so canonical.

Though the events of the Trojan War certainly make for an entertaining story, without the “superfluous” imagery of the original poem, it becomes little more than a news report. And although Homer’s epic is meant partly to serve as a historical account, the gutting of the poem’s language in order to fit in in 140-character parcels leaves the narrative lacking of many of the literary elements that make the Iliad so aesthetic. This loss includes not only descriptive language, but also the syntax and meter that hold the Iliad in the realm of poetry. Additionally, the poetic aspect is important culturally, as the epic played an important role in telling stories of heroic deeds and highlighting cultural values and morality.

However, the changes are not all negative. By transferring the Iliad to tweet format, we gain a more accessible, perhaps more purely entertaining story. While many people in the modern world do not have time nor attention span to read or listen to such a long epic, the concise tweets allow followers to consume the narrative in more easily digestible packages. Those who may have never otherwise read the Iliad gain new cultural awareness through these tweets, and there is nothing inherently wrong with pure entertainment value. While we may lament mindless consumption of stories without engaging with the text, the transfer of narratives to new technologies is a complex evolution producing both positive and negative change.