Elon Musk on Homer’s Iliad: ‘Best Story Ever’

Elon Musk is apparently captivated by the story of the Iliad saying on X, formerly Twitter, that is “the best story ever.”

“The incredibly captivating story that is The Iliad was meant to be spoken, so listen to it,” the tech mogul wrote on Sunday in a post, repeating the recommendation he made ten days ago to his followers to prefer the audiobook.

The incredibly captivating story that is The Iliad was meant to be spoken, so listen to it

When Priam tearfully supplicates himself to Achilles for the return of the body of his beloved sonhttps://t.co/L46boiMaI5

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 17, 2023

Elon Musk’s favorite story from the Iliad

In his post Musk included a clip from the 2004 film Troy, directed by Wolfgang Petersen and written by David Benioff, showing “Priam tearfully supplicates himself to Achilles for the return of the body of his beloved son,” as he writes in the caption.

Priam was the last king of Troy. Homer described Priam at the time of the Trojan War as an old man, powerless but kindly, not even blaming Helen, the wife of Paris, for all his personal losses resulting from the war.

In the final year of the conflict, Priam saw 13 sons die: the Greek warrior Achilles killed Polydorus, Lycaon, and Hector within one day.

The death of Hector, which signified the end of Troy’s hopes, also broke the spirit of the king. Priam’s paternal love impelled him to brave the savage anger of Achilles and to ransom the corpse of Hector.

Achilles, respecting the old man’s feelings and foreseeing his own father’s sorrows, returned the corpse. When Troy fell, Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, butchered the old king on an altar.

In another post on Sunday, which included the link to the Homeric epic in English from the Penguin Classic series, Musk called the Iliad “Best story ever.”

Best story ever https://t.co/TlAheGn63e

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 17, 2023

Elon Musk and his tweets in Greek

Elon Musk has tweeted in Greek several times in the past. In January 2023 he tweeted Omega (Ω), the last letter in the Greek alphabet, and his tweet went viral.

Musk explained shortly afterward that he used the Omega letter as it is used in physics: Resisting the current. The ohm (symbol: Ω) is the unit of electrical resistance in the International System of Units (SI). It is named after German physicist Georg Simon Ohm.

In October 2022 he tweeted just one word in Greek: “διαλεκτική,” which means dialectic and sent his millions of followers searching for their dictionaries.

Dialectic (Greek: διαλεκτική), also known as the dialectical method, is a discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to establish the truth through reasoned argumentation.

In classical Greek philosophy, dialectic is a form of reasoning based upon dialog of arguments and counter-arguments, advocating propositions (theses) and counter-propositions (antitheses).

The term “dialectic” owes much of its prestige to its role in the philosophies of Socrates and Plato in the Greek Classical period (5th to 4th centuries BC). Aristotle said that it was the pre-Socratic philosopher Zeno of Elea who invented dialectic. The dialogues of Plato are examples of the Socratic dialectical method.