Homer's Iliad to become an epic online performance

One of the ancient world's longest poems, The Iliad, is set for a marathon performance this summer as part of a festival celebrating ancient Greek culture.

According to the BBC, theatre director Rupert Goold is planning tobring Homer's epic to life with the help of 50 stars from the worlds of the arts, academia and politics.

The event will begin at the British Museum in London on August 14 and will continue into the night at the Almeida Theatre.

Every word of the 15,000 line poem, about the fall of Troy, will be spoken also be streamed online for 15 hours, the BBC quoted Goold, as saying.

Goold said the idea for the performance sprang from Dermot O'Leary's 24-hour dance-a-thon titled "For Comic Relief".

The Iliad event is part of a one-off festival, Almeida Greeks, which will run alongside the north London theatre's three main stage productions of Oresteia, Bakkhai and Medea.

Other events in the Almeida Greeks festival, which runs from June to October, include a number of debates about ancient and contemporary culture. Titles include From Medea to Mumsnet, From Dionysos to Dawkins, and From Aristotle to Albert Square.