#cause sure‚ *odysseus* gets a happy ending. not your husband. not your son.

[blueblurbbaskets]

Thinking about Epic the Musical/the Odyssey and isn't it fun how Odysseus is technically responsible for wiping out what is likely the majority of the adult male population of Ithaca :)

[theglassesgirl]

Thank you for your insightful tags @a-bottle-of-tyelenol !

And I hope you don’t mind me using this opportunity to mention Calypso because i refrained from doing so in my initial response, after having written a whole thing about her a few months ago, but I do understand it being a polarizing creative choice to make it ambiguous.

A brief (for me at least) analysis of Sexual Assault in terms of Calypso and its parallel to the suitors under the read more:

My thoughts on it on this specific subject compared to what I’ve talked about before are as follows and serves as a parallel to what Penelope went through on her own island while her husband was trapped in another;

To be fair, I don’t think it’s necessarily sexist of Jorge to have removed the assault aspect of Circe and Calypso (as some are saying in the OPs own post which…is a take, I guess)

I DO think it was absolutely a choice he made because he did not feel equipped to broach the subject that way and I’ll explain that a little bit, but he still absolutely understands the necessity of it throughout the musical and works to make HIS choice work for the overall arc - and well! Mind you! I think he succeeded even when he held back.

If we look at the source material, it’s certainly intriguing that the MAIN character of the story is a victim or assault by two different gods across the years, who essentially imprison and abuse him. Because of this, I feel it ADDS to the terror and fear by the time we the readers make it to Penelope and Telemachus’s POV in the poem. Because by that point, we have SEEN the antagonists “win” - Odysseus, like his family, has been a prisoner strip of any agency and options, and if HE has suffered sexual violence, it becomes a very real possibility for his WIFE to face

(in a lot of ways, we could also view Oddy killing the suitors be a sort of catharsis for him in that aspect, to be able to kill these violent men the way he couldn’t the goddesses who did all that do him, before they could hurt his wife and son)

Jorge’s musical is MUCH tamer, because he himself might be uncomfortable with depicting that subject matter as a physical action, but it still has a similar vibe.

We see Odysseus was able to respectfully reject Circe, but she still came onto him (albeit to kill him, but he had to account for all possibilities) so when he’s faced with Calypso, it’s VERY shocking and upsetting that he isn’t able to do the same with her.

The ambiguity of the seven years has caused so much discourse yet I argue, and trust me I’ve argued about it so much, that in some ways it’s exactly the ambiguity that Penelope and Telemachus faced.

We will never know what EXACTLY happened to Odysseus on that island, and we will never know what EXACTLY happened on Ithaca either.

As far as we do know, Antinous and who knows how many others feel very comfortable using sexually violent language to Penelope’s SON. She’s clearly put up a strong and unaffected front that Telemachus admires her for, but I’m sure it’s taken a heavy toll on her - the same her husband has faced, and that Athena has seen. And as far as we know, whatever calypso has done, given her words (like Antinous’), made Odysseus openly suicidal at least once!

While one spouse has to look strong, the other is visibly very weakened. This dynamic is missed when we don’t see both Penelope and Odysseus as complimentary partners, even after two decades of being apart!

But anyway. Having said this, Jorge’s version still provides a sense of urgency and plays on the audiences psychological need for Penelope to get a happy ending.

Because we’ve seen Odysseus successfully turn down one goddess, and we’ve seen him suffer under another without the privilege of knowing the depth of what he went through - for Penelope, its once again utterly inverted.

She CANNOT turn down any of the suitors successfully (hence the impossible task being her last ditch high stakes gambit, because SHE knows none of them can do it, but also doesn’t know how violently they will react to discovering that) and Antinous and the other suitors have completely cast aside pretense and are planning to assault her - no more ambiguity.

Where her husband has survived his own assaulters (though not unscathed) we are made very aware that Penelope’s situation is far more dire and her options much more limited. We are made to feel RUSHED, urged to see her helped (by Athena, her son and FINALLY her husband)

Jorge’s creative choice is still true to the integrity of this arc, Circe and Calypso still represent a parallel and an inversion to Penelope’s own plight.

Is it frustrating that not having a definitive answer to the boundaries Calypso pushed Odysseus - very much, I personally DO see her as someone who got physical based on much of her lyrics but I don’t mind people who don’t. As I have oft said, even without her “successfully” assaulting him, even if all she did was stand in front and look at him for seven years straight - it’s a violation of his autonomy and truamatizinggggg

but we’re not talking about her so much as how her role now fits/changed in the story. Mostly it hasn’t, is my point! If we really take a step back and follow the thread of this particular arc, it serves its purpose as well as when what Calypso did WAS explicit. Which again is why I feel Jorge made the creative choice to make the suitors intention MORE explicit.

For me, at least, it’s a careful balance that makes you LOOK at these two storylines and forces you to consider their similarities. We might not approve of the change, but unlike the heinous suggestion that the suitors should be innocent victims and Penelope be made their pal, Calypso’s role STILL works and fits the narrative.

Nevertheless, it’s perfectly fine if you still feel that way about it, because lord knows I’m constantly debating several aspects of Calypo’s character with other people across social medias lol and I’m sooo sorry this response went beyond the scope of your initial comments (please let me know if you’d rather untag you! 😭)

[blueblurbbaskets]

The 600 men that went with him was probably a sizable chunk if not the majority of adult males capable of fighting on Ithaca, which is not/ was not historically a large island. And between the fact that Ody brings a whopping 12 ships to Troy when some of the other kings bring 30 or 40, and the fact that most of the men around when he gets back to Ithaca after twenty years are either old men who couldn't have fought‚ young men who would have been children when he left‚ or suitors from other islands...

Yeah he basically wiped out an entire generation of men. And then did a significant amount of slaughtering the next generation‚ given how many were among the suitors. Like no wonder people rose up and tried to kill him before Athena stepped in and was like "no he gets a happy ending" lol. I have to wonder how many people were bitter after that, cause sure‚ *Odysseus* gets a happy ending. Not your husband. Not your son. Penelope and Telemachus got their happy reunion after twenty years but not the other 600 families

Thinking about Epic the Musical/the Odyssey and isn't it fun how Odysseus is technically responsible for wiping out what is likely the majority of the adult male population of Ithaca :)