#Mythical Music

[stanleynopines]

Fr

[bambiiniinii]

people who complain about mythological inaccuracies in epic the musical fanart are so annoying.

enjoy the amazing art people are making and let people enjoy doing what they do. and, maybe, make your own art on what you think is accurate. that could be fun!!

complaining about 'mythological inaccuracies' in fanart for the musical where odysseus perforates poseidon with his trident after using his magic jet-bag that twerking hermes got for him is an extremely embarrassing thing to do.

[kasel-the-mightless]

Poseidon will never admit it, but right now he really wants to eat Telemachus' straw hat

To be honest, I didn't plan to post these sketches, but these fellas???

Convinced me otherwise, so I will gradually post sketches with these two. Thanks fellas!!

(I don't think they expected Poseidon in the form of a horse tho)

Original color version:

The color rendering on my screen takes everything to a faded, slightly yellowish color. This usually doesn't bother me. Until I start drawing dark objects

[redmorg]

I decided that it’s a very tumblr coded artwork, so as the first post it goes

[kindred-spirit-93]

THIS IS EPIC: THE VENGEANCE SAGA II

assorted comments and bonus meme bc im still in shock. DNR

me @ my life support:

[kbsd]

the legend of ron speirs

roland aimed his thompson gun he didn't say a word...

[dolphelecat]

I Will Follow - Chris Tomlin

Wonderhole Edition

[melodyartist]

wait am i right are you with your friends remaking the odyssey with menelaus as the main character am i going to cry

Please don't cry it's so much worse than you think lol

I don't remember how it all started but we were talking about this thing, there are still many plot holes rn and things to fix, but as a basis we took the sagas of Epic(just as a general structure) and the version where Helen was never brought to Troy but to Egypt (Euripides there he goes again), so in this version they bring back the simulacrum that Hera made to their ships, but then realize it's a copy that they were fighting for all this time and then they set sails again. During the journey though, little Ajax makes the gods angry by challenging them (his hybris will lead to his demise later in the future) and everyone's ships get separated in a storm made by Poseidon (this will lead Odysseus to drift away, beginning his journey, Agamemnon will return home with the other ships, leaving his brother in search of his wife with a bunch of men left)

This is the incipit so far, in the meanwhile in Sparta Nicostratus and Hermione remain and grow up alone while waiting for their parents to get back, so in this case we have two Penelope's counterpart,Helen and Hermione, while Nicostratus will be the Telemachus of the situation. The throne of Sparta is empty, Orestes and Electra have come to power after their father's death, and they pressure their cousins to make a decision, especially since Orestes is Hermione's intended husband and claims that Nicostratus is an illegitimate child of the previous king, Nicostratus is not yet ready to be claim his father throne and set the records straight, so the stalemate begins!(BUT THERE IS MORE WE EVEN REARRANGE THE SAGAS)

Cast by far with the role swapped(just... Bear with me it makes sense after some explanation)

Menelaus<-Odysseus

Little Ajax<-Polites

Altair<- Eurylochos

Pieride<-Circe/Calypso

Ares<-Athena

Aphrodite <-Zeus/Poseidon

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Cultivator and Lawyer, Elle Woods (& Her spiritual dog Bruiser)!

Part 2 (soon)

[a-bottle-of-tyelenol]

Not sure how to properly word this, but I find it really interesting how EPIC!Odysseus subtly equates himself to being among gods, particularly when it comes to empathizing with EPIC!Eurylochus.

In Luck Runs Out, Odysseus specifically tells Eurylochus, “I need you to always be devout and comply with this or we’ll all die in this.” and I find that particularly interesting because “devout” is most often used in relation to religion and belief, as is the structure of complying with the words of a god because death is the only other option. And he does this right after he announces to the world that he is “neither man nor mythical” which inherently puts himself above his men.

Odysseus has moments of hubris, absolutely, but a lot of his more outwardly notable moments of arrogance are replaced with scenes that prefer to highlight his grief and humanity instead (specifically, I think of when he announces his name to the cyclops). It feels like, to me, a lot of Odysseus’ arrogance in EPIC is less straightforward. It’s not him galavanting about how he bested someone, it’s more about how he holds himself and his status above others. That isn’t to say it no longer exists— quite the contrary, actually. Odysseus is objectively selfish, as is Eurylochus and the crew, but just like in the Odyssey, his hubris is absolutely his undoing; it just looks a little different here.

“I took 600 men to war and not one of them died there, in case I needed to remind you.” is a moment where, yes the praise is deserved, but I think it’s a good one to showcase where he subtly uses his own capabilities as a way to diminish the concerns of his crew. It’s important to remember that Odysseus was Athena’s favorite and there are many situations in OG source material where she either saves his life or gives him a leg-up on the competition that he otherwise wouldn’t have had, even in something as benign as a race or game. Odysseus absolutely deserves credit, as he is still very intelligent and Athena picked him for a reason, but I have no doubt in my mind that she was a large reason for why he was even able to accomplish such a feat in the first place. And yet, he attributes it solely to himself here.

Now, it’s pretty evident that the crew are largely unaware of Athena’s interference so I’m not bringing this up to say the crew would side-eye this. I mostly bring it up because of the fact that Odysseus did it at all and how it adds to a reoccurring theme of Odysseus insisting that he is a man while also likening himself as a god. Odysseus’ mantra of being “just a man” is largely not meant to be entirely literal and is supposed to represent his guilt, remorse, empathy, and love— characteristics that are mostly attributed to humanity— but I still think this goes hand in hand with Odysseus as a character wanting to have his cake and eat it too.

You can see this a lot in how Odysseus approaches the gods. In my interpretation, he thinks of himself on some kind of equal terms as them— he thinks that he can win Aelous’ game, he thinks he can outsmart Poseidon, he thinks that he can handle Circe, and he thinks he can argue back with Athena and directly disrespect her because they are equals— friends. Honestly, the only time he doesn’t really do this is in the beginning with Zeus and Astyanax, which is interesting because it is also his interaction with Zeus in Thunderbringer that seems to stop this mindset all-together (I don’t personally think that Odysseus believes himself to be equals with Poseidon in GitW and SHS, which is largely why I believe he won, but that’s a topic for another day).

(Also, outside of the story, you see it in how Jay gives him electric guitar (electronic music is associated with magic), waited like eight songs for the first time we hear Odysseus’ name (a decision similar to how we never actually hear ‘Zeus’ and is even highlighted by the way that he reveals Athena’s identity in Warrior of the Mind and not his own), and how he has a song with his name (just like the monsters do). This isn’t super relevant, I just think it’s interesting.)

Anyways, regardless of how right he is about these things (because, admittedly, he often is), it says a lot about him and how he perceives the situation he’s in that he can think these things at all.

Something else that’s interesting to note: likening yourself to a god, even indirectly, is really bad culturally. The gods find it disrespectful and that’s why you see a lot of myths or moments about people being punished for saying that they’re as or more beautiful than Aphrodite, as or more strong than Ares, as or more smart than Athena. In the Odyssey, Telemachus visits someone’s palace (I think it was Menelaus but ngl I don’t remember) and he whispers about how it must be what the palace of the gods looks like because of how glorious it is and he is immediately corrected because doing something like that is really bad and is usually/always seen as disrespectful to the gods.

Which brings me back to Eurylochus, a regular guy who has the experiences of someone without divine blood or intervention and also watches as his captain and king, even indirectly, puts himself on a level where he does not belong. Odysseus, as incredible as he is, is not nearly as divine as he makes himself out to be. He’s the great-grandson of Hermes— not the son, not even the grandson, the great-grandson— and he is the king of Ithaca, a small island that isn’t actually all that wealthy. In Ancient Greece standards, he’s not hot shit enough to warrant this belief, and Eurylochus knows that.

Obviously, Athena’s mentorship does change things a bit, but I wonder how much of Odysseus’ inherent belief that he is above his fellow man leaked into his behaviors. How obvious was it to Eurylochus, to his crew? How do you go from seeing someone like Achilles or Sarpedon with direct links to godhood that fell despite their parentage, and someone like Odysseus, who is touched by the divine but not even half as close as the others? How do you watch them fall and then see Odysseus continuously getting too close to the very things that have killed so many heroes before?

It isn’t just that Eurylochus is a normal man— it’s the fact that he views Odysseus as one as well, and Odysseus’ actions, despite what he continually insists throughout the show, do not portray that of a normal man. Normal men do not ask for direct help from a being that does not care whether they live or die. Normal men do not face off against fucking Poseidon without backing down. Normal men do not charge in against a sea witch without any aid and expect to win. Normal men do not get to make the decisions of fate— of who lives and dies— and remain blameless.

Odysseus told him to listen, yes, but he also put himself on to a pedestal that his crew had no way of knowing was true. To them, he was a regular man doing things that would have gotten regular men killed— and it did, it just wasn’t Odysseus who died because of it.

[yebreed]

Serpentine Drum Stand From The Warring States Period

Another surrealist masterpiece. Artifacts like this make Warring States one of my favorite eras.)

The stand is conceived for the Jian type drum (建鼓), a double-headed drum with a pole, fixed on this base. The drum was skewered on a pole, just like an olive on a toothpick:

The top of the pole was often ornate with fluttering feathers (羽葆), the structure itself being reminiscent of the archetypal Axis Mundi and the World Tree. The motif of ascent to the heavenly realms thanks to drumming is characteristic of shaman beliefs.

Han dynasty relief depicting the Ascension to Heavens. A pole with a two-headed Jian drum is portrayed in a shamanic manner, as the World Axis, piercing the realms. Jiangsu Normal University Museum (江蘇師範大學博物館).

The slot is surrounded by sixteen principal serpentine beings with progressing in fractal minor ones. They were inlaid with now lost turquoise.

Although intricate, the base is symmetrical. Four rings along the contour were used as carrying handles. The weight of the device is impressive: more than 192 kg. Unearthed in 1978 from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng (Leigudun Tomb No.1 ), Suizhou, Hubei. On display in Hubei Provincial Museum (湖北省博物館).

Photo: ©湖北省博物馆藏

[smoshkidtv]

trevor singing “dentist” from little shop of horrors! (while high 🍃)

the full show is amazing and everyone on it (trevor included) sounds great!

[gnomeniche]

i am a eurylochus (from epic the musical) defender forever.

yes, he made deadly mistakes, but get this: so did odysseus. eurylochus is literally Just A Man, even moreso than odysseus. he doesn’t have the benefits of being a king with a capital-h Heroic fate and connections to the divine. he is trying his best to ensure the crew sees their home again while mediating their dissatisfaction and fear (getting into more interpretive territory but that could be a motive for opening the wind bag: to assuage the crew’s suspicion). eurylochus had all the reason in the world to be suspicious of odysseus’s decisions (many of them have unintended consequences!), and as a second-in-command, it is his Job to ask questions to ensure the leader knows what he is doing before the orders are executed.

and i think a lot of people miss that he has his own character arc implied in the background. he is just as affected by all the tragedy as odysseus. his changes of heart aren’t a sign of him being a hypocrite. he’s changing from everything the crew has been through, trying to learn from his horrible mistake with opening the wind bag by putting more trust in his captain. and the trust gets shattered when the king and captain decides to use his power to destroy his own people. he, odysseus, and rest of the crew ALL saw people die. they all went to the underworld. they all have people waiting at home for them. if you went into ANY of their heads, you would hear the “all i hear are screams / any time i dare to close my eyes” refrain. you need to remember this.

one thing about me is that i will always love a character who is a companion of a very powerful/significant Hero who is a) just an ordinary person caught up in the affairs of Gods and Kings and Monsters and Heroes, b) aware and wary of how much more power the Hero has compared to their less powerful comrades, and c) someone who chooses to put their trust in the Hero regardless but has their faith tested, possibly leading to a myriad of painful outcomes and betrayals depending on how careful/not the Hero is with their regard for their companions. it is an excellent character type. it reminds us that, as much as we put ourselves in the shoes of Mythic Heroes like odysseus, we would more likely be one of the ordinary people helping them and caught in the crossfire.

so, i adore how much epic the musical humanizes the crew and emphasizes their pain and desperation. i’ve read adaptations of the odyssey that make the crew out to be a bunch of idiots who ruined everything because they couldn’t just listen to their ruler. and i feel that type of adaptational decision buys too much into narratives of A King’s Rightful Power and Staying In One’s Place. odysseus can call the crew friends and brothers, and i believe epic’s version of him does see them as that, but he is the king and the captain. there is a power differential no matter what. so i love that i never get the feeling of “ugh what idiots these stupid underlings are” from epic. there are valid reasons why people lose trust in their leader, especially after a horrific war and on a difficult journey where people are dropping like flies. odysseus is still sympathetic, of course, but so are the rest of the men. i feel for all of them, and i think the musical is great for giving odysseus and the crew such a compelling relationship. and i love eurylochus because he embodies that relationship.

[trina-makes-an-entrance]

Thank you @lostmotivation2draw for letting me experiment with your colour pencils 👊😔

[shamster]

CW: Vi0lence

At least I'm not the only weirdo