The Ithaca Saga is the ninth and final saga in EPIC: The Musical, and the fourth saga in Act II. It consists of 5 songs that serve as a continuation from The Vengeance Saga and the musical's final arc. It will be released on December 25th, 2024, marking the end of EPIC's pre-release phase.
Songs[]
Plot[]
Due to this saga being unreleased, certain aspects of the plot may be changed upon final release.
The saga begins within the walls of Odysseus' Palace. Penelope, ever faithful to her husband, has not chosen a suitor to marry, despite saying that she'd choose a suitor when she finished the burial shroud for Odysseus' father, Laertes. This is because she has been weaving and unweaving the shroud every day for the past 20 years, waiting for Odysseus to get home. After seeing Poseidon's storm disappear, Penelope decides that it's time enact her plan. The queen gathers all of her suitors in the throne room and gives them a simple challenge: string Odysseus' old bow and cleanly shoot through 12 axe heads. Whoever completes the challenge first will be the new king of Ithaca.
While the challenge seems simple enough, Odysseus' bow has an absurdly high draw strength, and none of the suitors are able string it. After hours of all the suitors trying and failing, Antinous decides enough is enough. After convincing the rest of the suitors to band together, he begins to come up with a plan to seize the throne for themselves. The first step is to kill Telemachus in a rather brutal way, who is out on a diplomatic mission at the moment. To catch the Prince by surprise, Antinous says that the Suitors should wait at the docks and kill him as soon as he docks his ship. After that, all they need to do is dispose of the body and break into Penelope's room, with Antinous planning to do unspeakable things to her.
Unfortunately for Antinous, he came up with this plan a bit too late. Odysseus has returned to his palace, and he is not happy seeing his house being trashed by unwelcomed guests. From the shadows, the king attacks the suitors, aiming for their torches with his bow, and forcing them to scatter throughout the halls. A group of suitors realizes all of the weapons have been locked away, leaving them unable to strike back against this unseen figure before quickly being slaughtered from the darkness. One of the suitors, Amphinomus, finds the weapons in a room and realizes Odysseus hid the weapons while they were planning how to take control of Ithaca.
After painting his palace walls red with blood, Odysseus finally has a chance to rest for a moment. Telemachus suddenly finds him and realizes that, after years of feeling like he's stuck in his father's shadow, neither of the two truly knows the life the other has been living for the past 20 years. Odysseus, having not seen his son since he was an infant, is overjoyed to see that Telemachus has grown up to be as strong as him. The two lovingly embrace in a hug, father and son finally being reunited after 20 years.
Odysseus then finds Penelope in their bedroom, finally seeing her again after so long. However, Odysseus realizes something. To get back home, he's had to close his heart and embrace his ruthlessness, which has led him to do horrific acts. He's not the same man who left Ithaca 20 years ago, and he starts to wonder if Penelope will still love him if she knows what he's done to get back home. Seemingly saddened by the loss of her husband, Penelope asks Odysseus to move their wedding bed away. However, Odysseus tells her that this is impossible because he carved it from the roots of the olive tree where they first met. Penelope, knowing that only her husband would know about that, assures Odysseus that she will always love him. So at last, the King and Queen of Ithaca are finally reunited where their story began, Odysseus' journey finally coming to an end after 20 years of trials and tribulations...
Trivia[]
- The release date of this saga falls on Christmas Day, the same day that the Troy Saga was originally released.
- This is the longest saga in the entire musical.
- This saga summarizes half of the original Odyssey books/chapters (specifically 13-24).