Music vs Myth: Epic Part Three

Part One Part Two

Editorial Note – for the sake of this article the version of ''The Odyssey' used was the Penguin Books revised translation by D.C.H Rieu so any references to specific quotes, line and page numbers will reference this version of the epic.

After a disappointing visit to the Underworld and a chilling decision to become more monstrous, we rejoin Odysseus and his crew with the next two sagas of the ‘Epic’ musical.  Within the ‘Thunder Saga’ we see the results of Odysseus’ newfound perspective, and the final destiny facing his crew. Meanwhile, the ‘Wisdom Saga’ offers us a first glance at the fates of Penelope and Telemachus, left behind on Ithica for all these long years.

Following their visit to the Underworld and disheartening conversation with the prophet Tiresias, the paths of the Homeric Odysseus and of Epic’s Odysseus diverge. In Homer’s Odyssey, an unlikely encounter in the underworld saw Odysseus and his crew taking the difficult journey back to Circe’s Island. They learned that the night before their initial departure from Circe’s Island, Elpenor, the youngest surviving member of Odysseus’ crew had over-indulged. In his drunken state he climbed up to the roof to sleep and, in his haste not to be left behind the next morning, fell and died. His spirit encountered his crew in the Underworld, begging them to return and see his body properly buried.

With no such encounter in ‘Epic’ (with Elpenor’s verse cut from the song ‘The Underworld’) Odysseus and his crew had no need to return to Circe’s Island and instead set off into the ocean to continue their doomed attempt to return home.

The opening two songs of the Thunder Saga, ‘Suffering’ and ‘Different Beast’ both explore one of Odysseus’ most iconic moments – his encounter with the Sirens. Interestingly the title of one song may serve as a subtle nod towards the source material – there are several times within Homer’s poem where Odysseus and his crew are referred to as ‘comrades in suffering’.

Well known in myths and legends, Sirens are famous for their beautiful song which would draw men into the sea and ships against the rocks. While in the modern era these mythical women are often conflated with mermaids, earlier depictions showed them as part women, part bird. In one tale about the creatures’ origins, they are said to have once been the handmaidens of Persephone, transformed by Demeter in punishment for failing to prevent her abduction to the Underworld.

Famously, Odysseus instructed his men to fill their ears with beeswax, preventing them from hearing the siren’s alluring song. He himself, however, was unable to escape the temptation. He had himself bound to the mast, so that he could listen to the song without risking his life. It was still a dangerous decision. As soon as Odysseus heard the Sirens’ song he began to struggle and plead to be freed. Only after the ship had travelled out of hearing distance of the island did Odysseus return to his senses.

In ‘Epic’, Odysseus’ encounter with the Sirens goes very differently, a reflection of the darker more ruthless path he has chosen to take following his decision in the Underworld.

In ‘Suffering’ we see one siren attempting to lure Odysseus into the ocean. Though her song is sweet, it is not the only temptation that the siren uses. She is seemingly able to either shapeshift into the form of Odysseus’ wife or create an illusion of Penelope, that she uses to attempt to persuade Odysseus into the water to die. In addition to the form of Penelope, the siren uses the promise of comfort and relief as a motif to tempt Odysseus – “I would take the suffering from you”. While modern interpretations of sirens often depict them as beautiful seductresses tempting men with their look and song, in ‘The Odyssey’ it is actually knowledge that the sirens offer Odysseus to tempt him from the ship.

In an interesting nod to these origins, ‘Epic’s’ Odysseus is actually able to use his cunning tongue to trick the knowledge he needs out of the siren. Pretending to fear the water, he strings the siren along to manipulate them into revealing how his crew may return home while avoiding Poseidon’s wrath. The battle of wits cumulates with Odysseus managing to fully turn the tables on the siren, tricking her onto the ship with the promise that they will both enter the water together.

In ‘Different Beast’ once the siren is on his ship and at his mercy, Odysseus finally drops the charade, revealing the truth and the result of his previous promises to become ‘the monster’. He reveals that, as in ‘The Odyssey’, his men had been wearing earplugs of beeswax and thus were entirely immune to the siren’s song – though in this version, Odysseus too had blocked his ears, using lip-reading to converse with the siren. While Odysseus distracted that siren, her sisters were captured by his men. Refusing to listen to their cries of mercy – after all, when had he and his men ever been given mercy? Would the sirens not just go on to kill others? – Odysseus ordered that all the captured sirens be killed – and brutally so. He gives the order to “cut off their tails […] throw their bodies back in the water, let them drown”. This of course deviates greatly from ‘The Odyssey’, in which the ship passes by the Sirens’ Island, keeping their distance and leaving the sirens unharmed.

That said, though Odysseus and his crew did not physically harm the sirens in ‘The Odyssey’ there are some accounts that still hold him responsible for their deaths. In some legends, the sirens were fated to die if any were to hear their song and survive. Upon Odysseus’ survival, these stories claim that the sirens threw themselves into the ocean and (as orchestrated by Odysseus in ‘Different Beast’) drowned.

Following their encounter with the sirens, the Saga’s next song, ‘Scylla’, details Odysseus and his crew’s encounter with a far more dangerous foe. As with many creatures in Greek mythology, Scylla’s precise history is malleable. She may have been a nymph, transformed into a hideous creature by a jealous Circe, or she may have simply always been a monster – and a particularly terrifying one, at that.

As described in ‘The Odyssey’, Scylla is said to be a creature with six necks, each adorned with a vicious head, with three rows of teeth in each mouth. Though Scylla does not leave her cave, high on a rocky cliff face, her necks are long enough to reach down and snatch sailors from the deck of a ship – six at a time.

In both ‘Epic’ and ‘The Odyssey’, Odysseus and his men needed to travel past the lair of Scylla to return home. Both protagonists were aware of the cost this path would bring – in ‘The Odyssey’ Odysseus had been warned by Circe of what was to come. In ‘Epic’, Odysseus seemed to already be familiar with the creature during his talks with the siren, saying “but Scylla has a cost”. It is a cost that Odysseus is clearly willing to pay, as he choses to take his crew through Scylla's lair rather than continue to attempt to make his way through Poseidon’s storms. In both the Homeric and the musical versions of the story, Odysseus does not warn his men of the dangers to come. In ‘Epic,’ this is because he is willing to pay the cost of six men, if this will allow him to return home. In ‘The Odyssey’ Odysseus, “did not mention the inescapable horror of Scylla, fearing in their panic my men might stop rowing and huddle below decks.” 

Though he may not have told his crew of the danger they faced, in ‘The Odyssey’ Odysseus chose the path of Scylla as the lesser of three evils. On their second visit to Circe’s Island, Circe warned them of all the dangers they may encounter (from the sirens to the cattle of the sun god, information that Odysseus shared with his crew). She instructed him on two possible paths home. One, through the Wandering Rocks, a particularly dangerous stretch of sea that only Jason and the Argonauts were able to traverse, and second, between the rocks that house Charybdis and Scylla. Though both were dangerous, Charybdis with her whirlpools and waves would destroy a ship whole, while Scylla would only take six men. Face with two options that would see the entire ship destroyed, and one which would see them lose six men, Odysseus chose this third path. Despite being warned not too by Circe, Odysseus also clearly intended to fight Scylla to protect his men – he “put [his] famous armour on, seized a couple of long spears, and took [his] stand”. Tragically, as they passed Scylla’s rock, they were distracted by the destruction that Charybdis wrought, and it was in this distraction that Scylla struck, snatching six men before Odysseus and his crew could react.

In contrast, in ‘Scylla’, not only did Odysseus not attempt to defend or rescue his men, but he may even have played a part in choosing which men were killed. Shortly before entering Scylla’s lair, Odysseus orders Eurylochus to “light up six torches” – presumably indicating the six who were to be taken by Scylla. Given that this comes right on the heels of Eurylochus’ confession that he had been the one to open the wind bag and send them back out to sea, it is very possible that Odysseus had intended Eurylochus to be one of the men killed. At the very least, even if he had not intended Eurylochus to die, he did make him complicit in choosing who would, by making him light and distribute the torches.

Given this, it is little wonder that the next song of the Saga, ‘Mutiny’ sees Eurylochus and the crew turning against Odysseus, angered at his apparent sacrifice of six of their men. The song begins with Eurylochus demanding answers from his captain “Tell me you did not know that would happen […] use your wits to try and say I’m crazy and mad, that this is all some trick the gods have sent”. When Odysseus is unable to respond to Eurylochus’ accusations it dissolves into a fight. Though Odysseus seems to be winning, the crew quickly turn against him also, Odysseus is stabbed, overwhelmed and falls unconscious.

Interestingly, had Odysseus’ choice reflect that of ‘The Odyssey’ more closely, this mutiny may never have occurred. Despite advocating for the lives of the crew, Eurylochus has in past ‘Epic’ songs shown himself to be the pragmatic voice to Odysseus’ optimistic determination. On Circe’s Island, he argued for abandoning the men already taken by Circe in order to keep the men still free safe. If it truly had been a choice of six lives, verses the entire crew, Eurylochus may well have backed Odysseus’ choice. Instead, the choice is presented as the lives of the crew verses Odysseus’ desire to reach home – a motivation that Eurylochus finds wanting.

With Eurylochus seemingly now in charge, Odysseus wakes to discover that they have arrived at an island filled with cattle – cattle that the crew intend to hunt. Apparently not learning their lesson from the last time they wound up on an island conveniently filled with livestock and ignoring Odysseus’ frantic warnings, Eurylochus and the crew kill a cow. Immediately the atmosphere of the song changes, taking on a sinister tone. Odysseus and the men attempt to flee but as thunder crackles ahead we are left with only an ominous ‘We’re too late’ as the song ends.

As with the encounter between Scylla and the crew, the ‘Epic’ version of these events does deviate from the events of Homer’s Odyssey. In ‘Epic’, Eurylochus seemingly has no idea where they are, beyond ‘some island. The first one we found’ though they find a clue in the form of a statue of the sun god.

In contrast, Homer’s Odysseus and crew knew exactly where they were. They had, after all, been pre-warned by Circe and Tiresias of what awaited them on that island if they dared kill one of the sun god’s cows. Seeing the island, Odysseus reminded the crew of these warnings and said that he intended to bypass the island completely to avoid this fate. Despite the danger, the crew grew upset at this declaration. On their behalf, Eurylochus argued against Odysseus, pointing out how hard the upcoming journey would be and asking for a night’s relief for the crew, for them to rest on land and recover before setting off again. Odysseus agreed on the condition that each crewmember undertook a solemn vow not to kill any cattle, and to only eat their own supplies. The crew readily agreed.

Perhaps, if they had indeed only stayed one night, the tragedy may have been avoided. Unfortunately, that night the winds picked up and the crew were stranded on the island for over a month. Once their supplies gave out, the crew grew desperate. Odysseus left the crew to pray before the gods for relief. While he was away, (And possibly at the interference of the gods “They then cast me into a pleasant sleep”) Odysseus succumbed to his exhaustion and passed out.

While Odysseus was away, Eurylochus spoke to the starving crew. He convinced them that, whatever happened a quick death at the hands of the sun god would be better than slowly starving to death – “starvation is the most miserable way to meet one’s doom”, “I would sooner die instantly in a watery grave than waste away”. Upon his words, the crew slaughtered the cattle – though they did attempt to mitigate the severity of their actions by sacrificing them to the gods before they ate. Unsurprisingly, this was not successful, marking the second time that a beaten-down Odysseus has succumbed to exhaustion and his crew have taken advantage of his unconscious state to doom them all. First with the wind-bag, now again with the cattle.

Echoes of Eurylochus’ speech can be found in ‘Mutiny,’ albeit in a conversation between Odysseus and Eurylochus – “Hunger is so heavy”, “How much longer must I suffer now, how much longer must I go without”, “Ody we’re never gonna get to make it home”. Though Eurylochus does not go quite so far as to advocate for a quick death, his despondency and pessimism is clear to see in the verse. It is not entirely clear whether he wants his ‘suffering’ to end through relief at the meal, or whether he would accept a more permanent option. Regardless of his meaning, Eurylochus does immediately regret his decision in the face of an active threat and is just as eager to escape the island as Odysseus.

In ‘The Odyssey’ this threat is not so immediate, the crew remain on the island for several more days, feasting on their spoils – though Odysseus, of course, refuses to touch the meat – before the nymph Lampetie (whose job was to guard the cattle) ran to her father, Helios, and told him what had happened to his beloved cattle. A modern reader may be surprised to see Helios, rather than Apollo as the god of the sun, Apollo being the far more famous Greek god to hold the role. This however was not always the case. Helios, son of the Titan Hyperion, was once seen as the personification of the sun. It was he who would drive his solar chariot across the sky and illuminate the world below. Over time, Apollo began to be seen more and more as a solar deity (light being one of his aspects) and gradually myths of Helios became conflated with Apollo. In ‘The Odyssey,’ however, it is still very much Helios whose cattle the unlucky crew devoured.

An angered Helios took his grievance to Zeus, threatening to abandon the world of the living, travel to the Underworld and shine only upon the world of the dead if this insult was not answered for. Zeus of course soothes the god’s rage, promising to see justice done. Once the crew left the island, he would strike them down on the sea. Grimly, their last days on the island were filled with horror. Under the god’s anger the dead cattle seemed to reanimate “The hides began to crawl about; the meat, roast and raw, bellowed on the spits”. On the seventh day after they killed the cattle, the storm finally ended and a grateful, doomed, crew, set out to sea.

Not long after they set sail, Zeus’s storms hit them, the wind toppling the mast, even as lightning struck the ship, crew members being tossed over the sides. Amidst this chaos, Odysseus managed to avoid the worst of the horror, lashing the mast and the keel together in a makeshift raft and using it to survive as the ship was destroyed and the last of his crewmates died.

While Homer’s Odysseus may have merely survived disaster, ‘Epic’s’ Odysseus played a more active role in the deaths of his crewmates. In the final song of the saga, ‘Thunder bringer’ an angered Zeus appears before the crew in a crackle of thunder. Despite not having taken part in the slaughter, and not technically being captain at the time (unlike in ‘The Odyssey’ where Odysseus was disobeyed, but not technically overthrown), Zeus holds Odysseus responsible for the actions of his crew. He offers a choice – the lives of Odysseus’ crew, or Odysseus’ own life. Odysseus choses to save himself. While Odysseus was not party to the killing of the cattle and in fact argued against it, it could be argued that as their captain and king, Odysseus had a responsibility to see his crew home safely. Furthermore, some members of the crew were also members of his own family. Mutinous as he may be, Eurylochus was his brother-in-law, married to Odysseus’ younger sister, Ctimene.

As the next saga begins we leave Odysseus and his crew to their fates, and travel some years and some distance away to the shores of Ithaca, where Odysseus’ family find themselves facing an altogether different kind of threat. In the years that Odysseus has been gone, the young men of the surrounding lands have moved onto the island. They intend to claim the land as its new king, by claiming Penelope as their bride. In the next instalment of ‘Epic’, ‘The Wisdom Saga’ we finally see what has been happening to those Odysseus left behind; Telemachus, Penelope and a voice we have not heard from for some time – the goddess Athena.

The first two songs of the Saga, ‘Legendary’ and ‘Little Wolf’ focus on Telemachus and his encounters with the suitors. ‘Legendary’ sees a young and idealistic sounding Telemachus musing on his absent father, wishing that he had the strengths and skills that his father had, and wishing that he could set off to make his own legend – in part to find the glory that Homeric heroes are defined by, but also to find his missing father. His whimsical song is rudely interrupted by one of the suitors – Antinous – with the even more rude line “When’s your tramp of a mother gonna choose a new husband?” he goes on to suggest that Telemachus should let them into Penelope’s room so that they can “have fun with her”.

Not to take this insult and threat to his mother standing down, Telemachus fights back, the two descending into a brawl with the next song in the Saga, ‘Little Wolf’. During the fight, Telemachus finds himself advised by a mysterious voice – a voice listeners recognise as Athena. With Athena’s aid Telemachus does put up a good fight, but he does ultimately lose to Antinous.

Not disheartened by his loss, Telemachus seeks out the goddess who assisted him, and in the next instalment of the Saga, ‘We’ll be fine,’ Athena rather ambiguously speaks of a ‘friend’ she had once had and her regrets at how that friendship ended: “Maybe, if I’d made a different call. Maybe if I hadn’t missed it all.”. Telemachus offers Athena encouragement and support, “Maybe to fall is to learn one way. Maybe it's all gonna turn out great” even managing to cheer the goddess up slightly. This is somewhat of a role reversal to Telemachus and Athena’s first interactions in ‘The Odyssey’, which actually sees Athena encouraging a despondent Telemachus.

Firstly, in ‘The Odyssey’, Athena never disavowed Odysseus – the fight they had after the Cyclops’ cave never occurred, and Athena remained Odysseus’ staunch supporter throughout. In addition to this, it was Athena who offered support and advice to Telemachus – this was her entire motivation for travelling to Ithica in the first place “Meanwhile I myself will go to Ithica to instil more spirit into Odysseus’ son”.

The events after Athena first arrives on Ithica (which, in ‘The Odyssey’ is when we first encounter Telemachus and the suitors) occur quite differently from how they occur in ‘The Wisdom Saga’. In the original, we see a despondent Telemachus sitting among the suitors as they feast and indulge in his father’s palace. Despite his despair, Telemachus does show himself to be a good host, being the first to notice a disguised Athena and welcoming her into his halls, offering food and refreshments. On her part, Athena wore the disguise of Mentes, a friend of Odysseus’ father. In this guise, she encouraged Telemachus to confront the suitors, and to leave Ithica, travelling both in order to find word of his missing father, and to make a name for his own self – “you are no longer a child: you must put childish thoughts away.” It is only when Athena vanishes, that Telemachus realises that it was a god he was speaking with.

Taking Athena’s advice, Telemachus does confront the suitors. Not in combat, as he does in ‘Epic’, but instead by calling an assembly of the people of Ithica and before them listing the suitors’ crimes – their defilement of his home, depletion of his resources and persistence pursuit of his mother – and insisting that they leave at once. Though some elder members of the council spoke on Telemachus’ behalf, and though even Zeus himself sent a sign (two eagles fighting) that Odysseus would soon return, the suitors refused to heed these warnings. They argued that it was Penelope’s fault that they remained. Though Antinous is not so vulgar as to refer to Penelope as a “tramp” he does accuse her of leading the suitors on “for three whole years […] she has been leading us on, giving us all some grounds for hope, and in her private messages to each making promises she has no intention of keeping”.

Though Penelope may well have offered the suitors encouragement, she would have had little choice. Without Odysseus as the power behind the throne, Penelope and Telemachus had no way of physically forcing the suitors to leave. Outright rejecting the suitors ran the risk of a conflict Penelope had no chance of winning, and as long as each suitor had a hope of being chosen as Penelope’s spouse and king, they would not risk a conflict that may see one of the other suitors crowned instead. Her only real option was to pacify and delay the suitors in the hopes of Odysseus’ return.

The suitors insist that Telemachus either force his mother to choose a spouse, or return her to her father’s household, so that her father can arrange a marriage for her. When Telemachus refuses, the return to their existent stalemate. The suitors will not leave, and Telemachus cannot make them.

Following the rest of Athena’s advice, Telemachus journeys away from Ithica, hoping to seek out news of his father’s travels and hopefully find some sign that his father lives and will yet return home.

Wile we do not see Telemachus’ journey within ‘Epic’, we do see Athena seeking Odysseus herself. In the song ‘Love in Paradise’ Athena uses her divinity to see Odysseus’ journey while they were separated – told through snippets of songs from the other sagas – before we finally catch up to Odysseus’ most recent troubles, with his imprisonment on the island of Ogygia, home of the nymph/goddess Calypso.

Homer’s telling of ‘The Odyssey’ makes it clear that Odysseus’ time on the island of Calypso is torturous for him. There are perhaps hints that the relationship between the two may have once been consensual. Calypso is described as having “long since ceased to please” implying that she may once have done so – however by the time we see Odysseus on her island it is clear that this is no longer the case. As described: “At nights it is true, he had to sleep with there in the vaulted cavern, cold lover, ardent lady. But the days found him sitting on the rocks or sands, torturing himself with tears”.

“Love in Paradise” tells us very little about Odysseus’ time in Ogygia however, as in ‘The Odyssey’ it is clear that he is held there against his will: “I’m not pet, I’m a married man”, “For seven years she’s kept you trapped out of your control”. Much as Homer’s Odysseus “can only yearn for death” In ‘Epic’ we find a tormented Odysseus standing on the edge of a cliff – this despondency in ‘Epic’ however focuses far more on Odysseus’ losses “You don’t know what I’ve gone through, you don’t know what I’ve sacrificed” rather than Calypso herself as a source of his torment.

Concerned for her friend, the final song of the Saga, ‘God Games’ sees Athena go before Zeus and beg for Odysseus’ freedom – actions that mimic the actions taken by Athena within ‘The Odyssey’; “Tell me did the sacrifices he made you by the Argives’ ships on the plains of Troy find no favour in your sight? Why are you at odds with Odysseus?”.

In ‘The Odyssey’ Zeus does not need much persuasion. Homer states of Odysseus that “all the gods pitied him, except Poseidon, who pursued the heroic Odysseus with relentless malice.” And even Zeus himself (despite having previously struck the man’s ship with lightning) speaks favourably of Odysseus, referring to him as “admirable”, “the wisest man alive” and “most generous in his offerings”. It only took a small amount of prompting from Athena for Zeus to decide to help aid Odysseus in his return home. (One thing that may have helped Athena’s petition is that Poseidon was not present at the time, instead “gone on a visit to the distant Ethiopians” and so there was none present who would have argued against Odysseus release).

In ‘God Games’ ‘Epic’s’ Athena also supplicates Zeus for Odysseus’ freedom “Father, God King, rarely do I ask for favours”. Zeus response however is nowhere near as favourable, referring to Odysseus as “That Greek” and “a man full of shame”. Rather than immediately permitting Odysseus’ release, Zeus instead challenges Athena to a game. If she can convince several other gods (Apollo, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Ares and Hera) of his worthiness to be released then Zeus will allow it.

The grievances that the gods bring before Athena are all specific to ‘Epic’, they are not reflective of ‘The Odyssey’. For example, in ‘Epic’ Apollo is angered by the death of the sirens and the loss of their music, while in myth Apollo has no association with the sirens. Hephaestus is angered by Odysseus sacrificing his crew, while as we’ve established, this did not occur in Homer’s Odyssey.

Though difficult (and though he cheats), Athena does manage to win Zeus’ game and the saga concludes with Odysseus’ freedom secured. Whatever dangers follow in the next saga, Odysseus will finally be making his way home.