Hypertexting with Homer: Tlepolemus and Sarpedon on Heracles 259 Adrian Kelly Hypertexting with Homer: Tlepolemus and Sarpedon on Heracles (Il. 5.628–698) A hyperlink 1 in an online HTML (Hyper Text Mark-up Language) docu- ment is a key to an enormous informational resource. An online article on, for instance, the crisis which so recently convulsed the world’s financial markets would contain hyperlinks to the names of the great and the good in economic theory and practice, to previous instalments in the current nar- rative, even to the basic facts and dates necessary for a complete understand- ing of its material. Links to these accessed documents aim, in the first in- stance at least, to supplement or complement the experience of the original document, though the ease with which they can be accessed and provide further links in turn also opens up possibilities for moving away from the original document, challenging its hierarchical dominance in the process of interpretation, as the audience 2 begins to explore other articles (in a variety of formats) and is exposed to ever new realms and forms of information. 3 Termed hypertextual because it moves beyond the concrete text and encompasses not only the material but its (inter)connections as well, 4 this dynamic illuminates, contextualises – indeed maximises – any document for its audience. Mutatis mutandis such an informational model is obviously I would like to thank Christos Tsagalis and Bill Allan for their perceptive comments on an earlier draft of this article, and the former for his invitation to write it. 1 See Landow 2006 3 , 13–26 for the various types of ‘link’ possible between texts. 2 On the inadequacy of other terms (reader, user), see Joyce 1995, 41. 3 Landow 2006 3 , 3–4 compares to this process the reading of an article and the track- ing of footnote references, though in my view the experience is more akin (at least in terms of ease) to flicking through an encyclopedia like the Oxford Classical Dic- tionary (so also Snyder 1997, 16–17). Each article contains reference to others, and one can easily spend a couple of enjoyable hours flicking through the history and culture of the ancient world simply by following those links. HTML does not, therefore, amount to a radically different method of storing, cross-referencing and accessing knowledge, but it draws on already existing strategies and translates them into a new medium (see Bolter 1992, 19–20; contra Snyder 1997, 12–13; Landow 2006 3 , 53–68), thus increasing both the potential and the ease of reference. 4 Landow 2006 3 , 2–6. Trends in Classics, vol. 2, pp. 259–276 DOI 10.515/tcs.2010.014 © Walter de Gruyter 2010