So May This Strife Of Men And Gods Be Done With

This just in from Reuters:

Homer’s ancient Greek poem “The Iliad,” … has been compressed for a new generation too lazy to see the film let alone read….

Book Two is reduced to just 24 words of ‘messenger speak’, losing some of the lyricism of the original….

The translation, designed to publicize Microsoft’s messenger product, is not written in Homer’s dactylic hexameters but it does use ’emoticons’ — little faces or images — to emphasize intense moments.

In other news:

Warner Brothers has just admitted that this “emoticon” version was the basis for its movie, “Troy”.