Odysseus || Epic the Musical ||

Hates Poseidon for all the hardships the God had put him through and has been without Athena's help ever since she broke herself away from him, believing that he had disappointed her. Odysseus was raised on the island of Ithaca. He spent many of his early years with his best friend, Polites. At the age of nine, his father warned him that he was losing his mind, and that soon, Odysseus would inherit the throne. He then becomes King of Ithaca at age thirteen.

A couple of years later, he had met Penelope, whom he admired for her mind. He married her soon thereafter, making her Queen of Ithaca, and have a child, Telemachus, with her. Odysseus has led the Ithacan segment of the Greek Army in the Trojan War for 10 years, as demonstrated by his authority in detailing battle plans to other kings such as Menelaus. He came up with the idea of the Trojan horse in order to end the war, which was successful, as the Greeks emerged from the battle victorious and with no Ithacan casualties. During the battle, Odysseus was given a vision by Zeus, and was told that he must kill an infant boy - Astyanax, the son of the slain prince Hector of Troy - because he would grow up to avenge his father and city, hunting down Odysseus and murdering his family. He attempted to bargain with Zeus, but Zeus insisted that there was no other way, and that Odysseus must kill him. He conceded after much internal conflict. After the war, they set sail for the journey back home. Eurylochus, Odysseus' second-in-command, warned him that their food supplies have ran out; Polites then alerted him to something he spotted in the distance. Odyssed deemed the circumstances suspicious, so Odysseus led Polites to investigate, which led them to the island of the the Lotus Eaters. Odysseus showed Polites that blindly trusting the Lotus Eaters would have led them to consuming lotus fruit, which gives similar effects as a narcotic. Insistent, Polites asked the lotus eaters for an alternate food source, who then directed them to a large hole in a mountain to the east that had plenty of food for the soldiers. Odysseus’ consideration of Polites’ philosophy made enough of an impact to force Athena, his mentor, to appear, and reminded Odysseus of her teachings. Odysseus then led a small group into the home of the cyclops, where they could find enough sheep to feed their entire fleet (Polyphemus). Things quickly took a turn for the worse as Polyphemus, a cyclops and the owner of the sheep, walked in and saw that they have killed his blood of Odysseus and his men. Odysseus attempted to bargain for his life and the lives of his crew with "the world’s best tasting wine", but this failed to deter him, and thus only offered to leave Odysseus (who has told Polyphemus that his name is 'Nobody') as the final man to die. A battle ensued with Odysseus, and led his men into a fight for their lives. Many were lost in the battle, including Polites, but the cyclops had begun to wane and then fainted just as hope seemed lost. Odysseus' quick wit led to him spiking the wine that he offered the Cyclops with lotus. Unable to escape the cave due to Polyphemus' body lying in the way, Odysseus and his surviving crew then used their swords to fashion Polyphemus' club into a giant spear, then used it to stab the Cyclops in the eye. This caused the cyclops to awaken, and stagger away from the entrance. Awoken by the noise, other cyclopes deeper in the hole in the mountain expressed concern for Polyphemus, asking him who has hurt him. However, this was once again solved by Odysseus' wit; Polyphemus told the other cyclopes that 'Nobody hurt him', causing the other cyclopes to believe that Polyphemus was causing a fuss for no reason. Odysseus told his crew to grab the sheep and leave, but Athena then once again pulled Odysseus into her dimension, using her signature move Quick-Thought. She told him to finish the job and kill the cyclops, to which Odysseus refused, lamenting over the blood they have already shed. Out of Quick-Thought and as they sailed away, and out of rage and grief, Odysseus attempted to demand Polyphemus to be more merciful in the future, he revealed his name and title and told Polyphemus to remember him and his crew. Athena then appeared once again and scolded Odysseus for not killing the cyclops and ignoring her instruction, calling it “reckless, sentimental at best”. Due to Odysseus having “gone soft” and forgotten her teachings, she decided to leave him, refusing to offer him her assistance any further. Odysseus, angry and still grieving, appeared to agree with the decision, and insulted her, and told her that he didn't need her, and that her teachings had been a burden to him anyway.

He spent 9 days without sleep to watch the bag, and they almost made it all of the way back to Ithaca. However, Odysseus fell asleep. During this time, Eurylochus, presumably out of mistrust, opened the bag of winds. Penelope's voice woke him up and he saw the bag opened and a storm wreaking havoc; he quickly got Eurylochus to help him close the bag, leaving a small amount of wind inside. However, the act of closing the bag proved too late, as they ended up in the land of the giants (Laestrygonians)”, where Poseidon awaited them. Here, he told Odysseus that Polyphemus, the cyclops they blinded, was his son. He appeared to view Odysseus' act in not killing, and then blinding and taunting the cyclops as insolent and an insult, and deemed that he was teaching Odysseus a lesson: that being merciful had a price, and that "ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves". He and the giants then destroyed most of Odysseus' fleet, leaving only 43 men under his command, but Odysseus and his remaining ship managed to escape by opening the bag once more, releasing the remaining bits of wind. The crew then stopped at an island, on which Eurylochus attempted to confess something to his captain. Odysseus shut him down, then sent him out to scout out the island with a group of men.

Much faster than expected, however, Eurylochus returned, explained that the men had been lured in and then turned into pigs by a sorceress named Circe. He urged Odysseus that facing Circe wasn't worth the risk, and that it would be better to just save the remaining men by cutting their losses and leaving. However, Odysseus refused to cave, and said that he would go any length to save Eurylochus as well, and that he hoped he would do the same. Odysseus was confronted by Hermes on his way to Circe’s palace, who gave him the root of a divine flower called Moly.

Hermes: Slyly from a tree, out of sight, "I must say.. what a brilliant speech you gave."

Odysseus: Suspicious and looking around. "Who goes there?"

Hermes: Still hidden in the leaves, "Just a friend, who could help you save your men. A foe like Circe's not to be messed with. You want to beat her, you need a blessing from a certain god. Divine intervention. Someone who's not afraid too.. send a message."

Odysseus: Looking up and finally noticing the michevious god. "Hermes?"

Hermes: Laughter as he appeared out of the shadows, michief dancing in his eyes and hovering above the ground.

Hermes: "Wouldn't you like a taste of the power? Wouldn't you like to use more than words?" Pulled Odysseus into a playful twirl, as if in a dance "Deep in the night, the fight lasts for hours." Spun Odysseus off of himself in a dance, forcing Odysseus to catch his balance "You can be hurt or you can beat her." Conjured a sword, pointing it at Odysseys before letting it fade "Wouldn't you like to have some of the magic?" Allowed sparkles to fly from his hand, palm up "Wouldn't you like your outcome preferred?" Lowered his hand to throw an arm around Odysseus's shoulders "Deep in the night, the fight can be tragic, but I'll help you conquer her!" Quickly faded into the shadows, voice coming from around the trees "She can turn you into an animal that'll end up on her plate.." Created an illusion of Odysseus on his hands and knees on a huge plate, with Circe smiling above him. "She can all but make you fall in love like you're on your hundredth date~," as Hermes said that the illusion shifted and Hermes was laying on a table amused and bare, rolled, then rolled on his side to expose himself, Odysseus turned around to shield his eyes. "she can conjure up a monster!!" The illusion shifted to Odysseus standing in the middke of an unknown forest, and suddenly a chimera appeared from the shadows. "That'll grind you to the bones... She has all the ways to haunt you, when you take her on alone! Hermes jumpscares Odysseus.

From there Hermes told Odysseus that consuming a root (moly) would allow him to not only resist the sorceress' power, but also claim some of it to manifest a magical construct of his own. As he spoke he continued to fly around Odysseus energetically. When he mentioned that Circe could make Odysseus fall in love with her like he was on a hundreth date, he flashed Odysseus to make a point and for his amusement, causing the captain to turn away, flustered. He acted all flirty throughout the explanation (but didn't truly have any desires behind it), before finally handing the root to Odysseus. Odysseus did as he said, and thanked him. Hermes wished Odysseus luck before dissapearing.

After arriving at Circe’s palace, he initially attempted to be flattering, and addressed her as “lady of the palace”, but this fell away after he revealed that he knew what she did to his men. She was unable to directly cast spells on Odysseus due to the Moly (which she immediately deduces was given by Hermes); thus, they fought using creatures that they manifested with their powers. Odysseus won the fight, and drew his sword and threatened her; Circe then attempted to seduce him. This appeared to nearly succeed, but in the end, Odysseus refused her, expressing his love for Penelope. After he lamented over not being over to see his wife and pleaded for mercy, Circe told him that the only way to evade Poseidon that she knew of was to send him and his crew to the underworld to meet the prophet Tiresias. Odysseus and his men sailed to the underworld under Circe’s instructions. He was confronted by the spirits of his 558 dead crewmates, who appeared to be angry with him, repeating Poseidon's idea of "ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves". As well, he encountered the spirits of Polites and his mother, who died "of a broken heart" while awaiting his return. He and his crew eventually reached Tiresias, to whom Odysseus speaks alone.

Tiresias proceeded to foretell and even hinted at the events along the rest of his journey, such as the mutiny; he told him that the man who would make it out will not the same man who began. Odysseus was outraged at this, and said that their suffering has been for nothing, but Tiresias continued; he spoke of the suitors, and that he saw his wife with a fearsome man, implied to be Odysseus himself, though he didn't know this. Later Odysseus was talking to someone who appeared to be Penelope, who was actually a siren attempting to lure him into the water. Odysseus had planned for this, earlier having seen a ship with no crew left and realizing that they'd entered the realm of the sirens; he had ordered his crew to plug their ears with beeswax, and his communication with "Penelope" is purely through lip-reading. He played along with her, delaying "jumping into the water" to ask her questions about how to evade Poseidon, presented as a hypothetical; she told him that the only way was to sail through the lair of Scylla, a sea monster who even Poseidon fears.

Odysseus told her that she'd given him all the information he needed to get home because he knew of Sirens' extensive knowledge regarding marine routes. The sirens begged for mercy, but he shutted them down coldly. He ordered his men to kill the sirens by cutting off their tails, and throwing them back into the water to drown. While on their way to Scylla's lair, Eurylochus remarked that Odysseus was unusually quiet; this was most likely because Odysseus was planning a sacrifice to get past the monster, though neither his second-in-command nor the crew know of this.

Scylla said, at the end, that she and Odysseus are the same - as in, that they are both monsters - and Odysseus accepted this. Eurylochus confronted Odysseus, enraged that he would willingly let their crewmates die instead of fighting the monster. Odysseus was silent, refusing to speak on the matter, and so, though reluctant, Eurylochus draws his sword. Odysseus ordered him to stop, but Eurylochus refused, stating that Odysseus was so desperate to see his wife that he would endanger everyone else if need be. The two fight Odysseus appeared to best Eurylochus, going in for the kill when he is suddenly stabbed by Perimedes, a crew member in the back. The crew was upset at his betrayal, and with Eurylochus, they knock him out. Odysseus awakened to see that they were on an island and that was is tied to a statue of the sun god, Helios. Eurylochus told him that the island is full of cattle and that he is starving. Odysseus recognized that these were the sacred cattle of Helios, and pleaded with Eurylochus not to succumb to hunger, but he is too desperate, and attacks a cow. Immediately, they sense danger, and Odysseus managed to free himself, and ordered the crew back to the ship and to row away as fast as possible, knowing that the cattle would evoke wrath from the gods. However, they were unable to escape in time. Zeus appeared, confronting them, and spoke of Odysseus' arrogance and insolence in messing with the gods; he painted the idea of mortal hubris as a damsel in distress, and spoke of how he can easily overcome them both with enough pressure. Zeus then offered Odysseus a choice: to save his crew, or to save himself. Odysseus chose his own survival, and allowed Zeus to kill the rest of his men. Now alone, he was thrown into the ocean, eventually washing up on Calypso's island. Odysseus wakes up with Calypso at his side, who told him that he had washed up on her shores a while before. She then showed him her island that had everything he could ever want, claiming him to be her love for eternity.

Odysseus, still unused to his new surroundings, shrugged off her advances and threatened to kill her, only for her to brush off his threat by revealing her status as a goddess. Realizing that he is now trapped on the island with no way to get back home, Odysseus panicked as Calypso embraced him. After seven years, Athena, after meeting with Odysseus' now-grown son Telemachus, looked through Odysseus' memories to learn what has happened to him since their separation. She witnesseed him attempting to kill himself from the torment of being trapped as well as the various loved ones he has lost, as an alarmed Calypso looks on. After Calypso's mention of "open arms" triggered a rush of memories of Polites, Eurylochus, and the shade of his mother, pushed Odysseus to the brink of despair, he cried out to Athena for the first time in seven years, spurring her to help him. Athena went to her father Zeus, and asked him to release Odysseus from his imprisonment. Zeus decided to make it a game in which she must convince five gods to let him go - Apollo, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Ares and Hera. Athena successfully convinced all the gods, but when she demanded Odysseus' release, Zeus was furious and entered Beast Mode, ajd struck Athena down with his lightning to such a severe degree that Ares wondered whether she is dead. After tanking more hits from Zeus, Athena made her final appeal to Zeus to let Odysseus go as she collapsed from her wounds. Someone, later revealed to be Hermes, then informed Calypso of Athena's Triumph. Calypso was upset at the idea of being alone once again. She told Odysseus that he is now allowed to leave, but before he goes, she expressed her genuine love for him and apologized for anything she did that may have hurt him or made him uncomfortable, but that she is not sorry for loving him. Odysseus expressed that he does love Calypso, but not romantically. In the end, after she bidded farewell, Hermes appeared to Odysseus to tell him how to get home, and warned him that it will be an extremely perilous journey. Odysseus agreed to risk everything and to even change his whole mindset if only to make it home. Hermes then instructed him to follow the north star and fight his way through anything he encounters. He gave Odysseus the bag with Poseidon's storm inside, and tells Odysseus to keep the bag closed if he wants to get home.

The roleplay takes place after the war, 5 years after Athena left him.