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“ | I'm just a man... | „ |
~ Odysseus' most famous quote, regarding his own existence in the mythical world of Ancient Greece |
“ | Then I'll become the Monster! I will deal the blow! And I'll become the Monster like none they've ever known So what if I'm the Monster? Lurking down below! I must become the Monster, and then we'll make it home! Penelope...Telemachus! Ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves I'll become the Monster. |
„ |
~ Odysseus fully embracing ruthlessness and abandoning his peaceful ideals |
King Odysseus of Ithaca is the main protagonist of Jorge Rivera-Herrans' EPIC: The Musical which serves as a retelling of Homer's Odyssey from Greek Mythology. He is the King of Ithaca who left to fight in the Troyan War and is now on his journey to make it back to his family in Ithaca, facing numerous obstacles along the way.
He was voiced by the musical's creator Jorge Rivera-Herrans.
His Good Ranking[]
What Makes Him Admirable?[]
The Troy Saga[]
- Since his days of childhood, he has been training under Athena to become "the perfect warrior" and has come to be known as one of the best heroes in all of Greece.
- When the Trojan War began, Odysseus sailed to fight alongisde 600 other men for 10 years, and became the reason the war ended by suggesting a strategy where the troops would clim inside a wooden horse which would then be presented as an offering to the troyans, only for them to jump out and take them out in their sleep. He also organized a strategy with Diomedes in the lead in order to ensure the plan's success.
- When Zeus presented himself to him and spoke of a coming threat that could only be stopped in that moment, Odysseus accepted with no hesitation. When he found out that said threat was Prince Hector's infant son, who would grow to become a hate filled warrior, Odysseus begged Zeus to not make him take the child's life, proposing several alternatives such as raising him himself or sending him to lands unknown.
- Though he did ultimately chose to take the child's life, he felt tremendous guilt over this act that would haunt him for years to come, as he still though about it during his trip to the Underworld, and he only did it as it would keep his family safe from who the child would become.
- After the war ended, he took command of the entire fleet in the journey back to Ithaca. Once they had run out of food, he and Polites scouted ahead in a possibly inhabited island for food, with Odysseus telling Eurylochus to not attack unless they weren't back by sunrise.
- When the lotus eaters gave them food, he noticed the fruit given was a lotus that controls one's mind and stopped Polites from eating it or feeding it to their troops.
The Cyclops Saga[]
- After Polyphemus appeared before them in the cave, Odysseus tried to ensure a peaceful resolution by negotiating with the Cyclops and apologizing from the death of his sheep, giving him fresh wine in exchange for their lives. As a backup plan, he also mixed lotus in the wine to get the Cyclops to faint, which would ultimately save the remaining men's lives and allow them to escape.
- After Polyphemus began his attack, Odysseus commanded his troops in a strategy that managed to push back the Cyclops and allow the men to escape, only failing because Polyphemus suddenly took out a club and killed several men, including Polites, which caused Odysseus to freeze in shock.
- Once Polyphemus had fainted and Eurylochus broke him out of his shock, Odysseus commanded his men to not let their comrades die in vain and remember them to keep their memory alive, coming up with a strategy to blind the Cyclops by sharpening the club into a giant spear.
- His genius allowed his men to escape as once more Cyclops heard Polyphemus' cries and asked what had happened, he replied that Nobody had hurt them (as Odysseus had given that as his name), tricking the others into leaving.
- Though neither he or Athena were right in their argument, Odysseus still stood up to her to defend the deaths if his friends and call her out for her selfishness. This would also help Athena understand her mistakes and begin to change several years later.
The Ocean Saga[]
- Once a massive storm hit the fleet, Odysseus had the other ships follow his own and commanded his men to avoid the waves on their path to the island to minimize their damage. Once they spotted Aeolus' island, he had all his men grab a harpoon and toss it at the island, which saved them from sinking.
- When Eurylochus questioned his methods, he tried to uphold Polites' ideology of being kind instead of always violent and when Eurylochus began to gain the men's support, he took him to a private room and scolded him for spreading doubt and questioning every move, requesting him to believe in him.
- He climbed up into Aeolus' island and asked for help in clearing the storm, accepting a deal by trapping the storm into a bag which he could not open, even after the winions told his men it was actually treasure, he still tried to talk them into not letting said rumor spread and stayed awake for nine days watching the bag.
- As the bag was opened while he fell asleep for a second, he prevented them from being pushed back furthert by the storm, asking Eurylochus to help him close the bag to preserve the remaining wind to keep as an asset.
- After Poseidon drowned 500 men, leaving only one ship standing, Odysseus saved the lives of the remaining 43 men by opening the wind bag and using the wind to get his ship far away from the God.
The Circe Saga[]
- He sent out his men to scout Circe's island and after Eurylochus returned by himself and explained the others were turned into pigs by Circe, Odysseus inmediately left to go save them in spite of Eurylochus' protests.
- Once he was gifted molly by Hermes, he took on Circe by himself, using it to conjure a Cyclops to defeat Circe's chimera, and cornering her.
- When Circe began to seduce him in order to get him to lower his guard so she could kill him, he rejected her advances and talked about his wife Penelope, who was still waiting for him, kindly begging Circe to let his men go, which convinced Circe to not only release them but help them avoid Poseidon by sending them to the Underworld to find Tiresias.
The Underworld Saga[]
- After arriving in the Underworld, he ordered his men to keep their focus on finding the prophet and ignoring any illusions, with Odyssues himself staying strong despite seeing his fallen 500 comrades, including Polites.
- When he spotted his mom and realized she had passed while he was away, he tearfully bid her a final goodbye before continuing onwards to find Tiresias.
- When Tiresias stated his prophecy, Odysseus in spite of not fully understanding it, realized that in order to survive he couldn't always be merciful ans as such chose to fully embrace ruthlessness and become a monster to anyone who would stand in his path home, which would ultimately allow him to actually reach Ithaca.
The Thunder Saga[]
- When he spotted an empty ship and realized there were Sirens in the area, he had all his men seal their ears with beeswax as to not be swayed by their songs. He also interacted with a Siren pretending to be Penelope, reading her lips for information and getting her to tell him the way home without running into Poseidon.
- Even if his brutal killing and mutilation of the sirens was unecessary and cruel, it still ended their threat towards him, his crew, and other ships, with Odysseus poiting out that if he had spared them, the sirens would have killed another group of sailors, showing that Odysseus did save lives even if it was in a ruthless way.
- Per the sirens' directions, he took his men to the lair of Scylla, understanding this was the only way they would be able to make it home, despite the fact that he'd have to sacrifice six of his men.
- When Eurylochus turned against him and his men knocked him out, after waking up on Helios' island and realizing Eurylochus planned to kill his cattle for food, he tried to convince him otherwise knowing that it would deeply anger the Sun God.
- Once Eurylochus had actually killed one of the cows, he broke free of his restraints and tried to save his men by getting them on the ship and quickly sailing away, even though they had literally backstabbed him moments prior.
- Despite ultimately choosing to let Zeus kill his remaining crew to spare his own life, he only did it as he had been pushed to his limit and truly only cared about seeing Penelope and Telemachus at this point, this deed would also haunt him for years to come.
The Wisdom Saga[]
- After waking up in Calypso's island where she tried to seduce him to sleep with her, he refused and tried to find a way out, even threathening to kill her and only being rendered powerless as she was a goddess.
- Though he was absent from the first 20 years of Telemachus' life, his son was still inspired by the very idea of him and stood up to the suitors in order to keep his mother safe, as well as joining Athena to become a warrior like his father.
The Vengeance Saga[]
- After he was given his freedom and Calypso came to say goodbye, he forgave her in spite of her abuse of him and even told her he loved her, just not in a romantic way.
- When Hermes appeared before him to give him one last way home, he agreed and was given the wind bag once more, giving him a clear way to Ithaca with no storms.
- He singlehandedly took on Charybdis, managing to get past her by just evading her until she had swallowed too much water to breathe.
- When Poseidon appeared after he had finally reached his home, he tried to bargain with he God and use Polites' ideology one last time to try to get the God to forgive.
- After being nearly killed by Poseidon, he opened the wind bag to use as a propulsor to reach the surface once more and took on the god by himself, being able to fight him head on and ultimately defeat him with the aid of his deceased 600 men.
- Realizing the storm was blocking his way home, he used Poseidon's own trident to torture him into calling off the storm.
The Ithaca Saga[]
- After finally making it to Ithaca, he disguised himself as a beggar and infiltrated the room where the Suitors were trying to complete Penelope's challenge, and after overhearing Antinous motivating all of them into a plot to kill Telemachus and r*pe Penelope, shot him dead with his old bow before cutting out the lights and begginning to hunt down and kill all of the suitors one by one.
- Though one of the suitors, Eurymachus did beg him for mercy, Odysseus killed him because he was proof that as long as they were around, his family would never be safe, even calling him the "old" king.
- After Amphinous overpowered Telemachus, Odysseus saved him by stabbing the suitor from behind and then shooting all the remaining ones dead, finally releasing his family from danger and peacefully reuniting with both his son and wife.
- When he reunited with Penelope, he admitted that he didn't feel desserving of her love due to how much he had changed and all the lives he had taken.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- Odysseus' morality is a major plot point in the musical, with heavy emphasis on the ambiguity of it being present in most of the songs he's in, questioning wether or not he goes to far, which he ultimately does as throughout the course of the musical, Odysseus becomes more and more volatile, to the point where he becomes On & Off for a while due to his less than ideal methods and even becomes a Fallen Hero during the Thunder Saga, where he actively kills his foes without remorse and is even willing to sacrifice his own men, which no matter how desperate he may have been to get home safely, is still treated as a very serious and dishonorable act in-universe.
- Both before and after embracing ruthlessness, Odysseus is too much of a lethal individual to be NPG, as no matter how much guilt he feels for some of his actions (to the point where he almost committed suicide during his stay at Calypso's island), he is still far too prone to killing, mostly exhibited in the Vengeance and Ithaca Sagas:
- By default, he is a war general and even more as Athena's student, he is basically designed to be a formidable warrior, which in Athena's mind includes not caring who he hurts as long as he defeats his enemy.
- After catching the sirens, Odysseus had his men cut off their tails and then toss them all back in the water to make them slowly drown, even after they had begged him for mercy. While the sirens had indeed been trying to kill him, Odysseus had already obtained all he needed from them and already had his escape secured, and didn't really need to take out the sirens to proceed, especially in such a cruel and inhumane manner. This is also brought up as a point against him by Apollo during the God Games
- He ultimately chose to sacrifice six of his men to Scylla in order to cross through her lair and avoid Poseidon, which in turn led to his men losing all trust they had in him. This would also later lead to Zeus' arrival where Ody is forced to chose between himself and his crew and in order to see his wife again choses to let Zeus strike down all his men.
- Even though it was the only way to reach Ithaca, Odysseus still brutally tortured Poseidon by repeatedly stabbing him with his trident, taking advantage of his immortality to make him endure the pain, to the point where the God barely had any breath left to beg.
- While justified, he brutally murdered 101 suitors in horrifying ways, with the song placing emphasis on how Odysseus himself is now the monster, reflecting Polyphemus, Circe, and other foes he faced himself. It gets to the point where he beheads a dying Amphinous and uses his head as a show for the suitors on what's going to happen to them, with the 38th song ending with Odysseus over a pile of bodies, fulfilling Tiresias' prophecy.
- He had several jerkish moments towards his crew, not to mention that in spite of being hailed as a legendary hero, he is a true Anti-Hero from the Underworld Saga onwards as his only motivation is to reach Ithaca regardless of what he has to do. It also becomes more evident that he cares more about getting himself home rather than all his men, something he actually says in "Mutiny" while asking Eurylochus to not kill Helios' cattle.
- Perhaps one of his most fatal flaws is that Odysseus is far too prideful and vain, with his hubris causing more trouble than it's worth.
- His worst moment is at the end of "Remember Them" where after having succesfully escaped Polyphemus' cave. Odysseus defies Athena and decides to instead mock the Cyclops for the loss of his vision and spiting him for daring to cross him by revealing his full name so that Polyphemus can forever remembet who took his sight, even calling himself more than a man or a myth. This is ultimately what led to the deaths of 500 of his men as they were in turn attacked by Poseidon for the pain of his son, and it also delayed their journey by several more years as the crew had to search for a way to go back to Ithaca while avoiding the God of Tides.
- He defies his patron goddess Athena, and while he was morally correct in not taking Polyphemus' live, had he not given out his name, it would not have brought as much misfortune to the fleet, even more so since this caused Athena to abandon Odysseus for 10 years.
- After sacrificing six men to Scylla, it is shown more as an act of arrogance that something for the benefit of the entire crew, further backed up by the fact that Odysseus is genuinely shocked that his crew sided with Eurylochus despite him never considering their thoughts on the matter or that they might oppose being used as sacrifices.
- While he was indeed betrayed and was right to not trust his men to some extent, Odysseus was still a mediocre leader who failed to take his crew into account when making decisions that could impact the course of their journey and in turn their lives. He also refused to hear Eurylochus' doubts in "Luck Runs Out" simply because of the fact that he's made it out alive in the past, which in turn led the mistrust of his men to build up until they finally turn against him.
External Links[]
- Odysseus on the Heroes Wiki
- Odysseus on the Villains Wiki
- Odysseus on the Epic The Musical Wiki
- Odysseus on the Magnificent Baddie Wiki.