The Ithaca Saga is the ninth and final chapter of EPIC: The Musical. It was released on December 25th, 2024, marking the end of EPIC's pre-release phase.
Songs[]
Plot[]
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. For the past 20 years, she has been weaving and unweaving the shroud each day, waiting for Odysseus to return home. After seeing Poseidon's storm disappear, Penelope decides that it's time to enact her plan. She gathers all her suitors in the throne room and presents them with a 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 to string it. After hours of them trying and failing to string the bow, Antinous decides enough is enough and convinces the rest of the suitors that Penelope is toying with them. He begins to devise a plan to seize the throne for themselves. The first step is to kill Telemachus, who is currently out on a diplomatic mission. Antinous says that the Suitors should wait at the docks to catch the prince by surprise and ambush him as soon as he docks his ship. After that, all they need to do is dispose of the body, with the leader deciding to dismember the prince's corpse and dump his remains into the ocean, and then break into Penelope's room, with Antinous planning to do unspeakable things to her. As the suitors are rallied by their leader's call to action, Antinous is suddenly shot in the throat and crashes to the ground, lifeless. The King is home. And he has heard everything.
The suitors find themselves locked inside the palace as they scatter throughout the halls. They begin dropping like flies, being dragged into the shadows and slaughtered one by one. A group of suitors realizes that all their gear is missing, leaving them unable to strike back against this unseen figure. The group bickers and one member suggests using the element of surprise, only for the King to appear abruptly and mock their hubris before swiftly killing the entire group with his blade. One of the suitors, Eurymachus, finds himself alone with the King, begging him to spare them since he has already killed Antinous. However, as soon as Eurymachus attempts to suggest open arms, similar to the King's fallen comrade, he is quickly slaughtered. Two other suitors, Amphinomus and Melanthius, attempt to flee and find the armory unlocked, realizing that their foe hid the weapons while they were planning. The two of them wonder why such a wise king would leave such an important room unlocked. There's a simple answer to that question: he didn't.
Suddenly, Telemachus, Athena's new Warrior of the Mind, kills Amphinomus by thrusting a spear through his heart. He then asks Melanthius to leave, ensuring that he'll be spared. Melanthius, using Telemachus' mistake of leaving the armory wide open to his advantage, calls out his location and tells his fellow suitors to take the prince hostage. The suitors attempt to fight Telemachus, but he holds them off and ends up killing a few. However, Melanthius catches him off guard and knocks Telemachus' spear to the ground. The King then stabs Melanthius from behind, saving his son. The suitor begs for mercy only for the King to sate that he no longer sees that as an option as he slaughters oncoming attackers with shots to the head. As Melanthius attempts to crawl away, the King rips his sword out of the suitor’s chest and stabs him repeatedly, killing him. The King then sends the remaining suitors a message by cutting Melanthius' head off of his corpse, demonstrating what will happen to those who threaten his family. The remaining suitors, overcome by fear and grief, run from the armory trying to escape the monster that they provoked. When dawn breaks, the palace's walls have been painted red with the blood of those who dared to harm the King's family. Tiresias' prophecy has, at last, been fulfilled.
After an eternity of suffering, Odysseus finally has a chance to rest for a moment and suddenly finds himself reunited with his long-lost son. Telemachus realizes that, after years of feeling stuck in his father's shadow, neither of them truly knows what the other has been living for the past 20 years. Odysseus is overjoyed to see that Telemachus has grown up to be a strong prince in his absence, and assures him that he will never spend another day alone ever again. Telemachus hugs his father, celebrating their reunion after two decades apart. After their tender moment, Odysseus asks Telemachus to tell his mother that he has finally come home. Once Telemachus leaves, Odysseus feels a familiar presence and calls for his old friend to reveal herself. Athena pulls him into the Quick Thought dimension and begins to contemplate her old philosophy, questioning whether there is a world where violence is not the answer. Odysseus, knowing that he is not the same man who left Ithaca 20 years ago, tells Athena that this ideal world is far beyond him. He asks her to make that dream a reality, but his journey must come to an end. After the Goddess of Wisdom acknowledges her old friend’s ambition and says her goodbyes, Telemachus tells his father that the queen is waiting for him.
At long last, Odysseus finds Penelope in their bedroom, finally seeing her again after so long. However, Odysseus believes that he is no longer the man that Penelope fell in love with. He recounts the numerous acts of violence he has committed in her name and asks Penelope if she still loves him after everything he has done. Seemingly saddened by the loss of her husband, Penelope asks Odysseus to move their wedding bed away. Odysseus, shocked and outraged by the request, proclaims that this is impossible because he carved the bed into the olive tree where they first met. Knowing that only her husband would know that, Penelope assures Odysseus that he is still the kind and gentle man that she remembered and that she will always love him. Finally, the king and queen of Ithaca lovingly embrace, reunited where their story began. At long last, after 20 years of trials and tribulations, Odysseus' journey has come to an end.
Trivia[]
- The release of this saga falls on Christmas Day, the same day that the Troy and Ocean Saga were released.
- This is the longest saga in the entire musical.
- This saga summarizes half of the original Odyssey books/chapters (specifically 13-24)
- To celebrate the release of this saga, the cast and team of EPIC traveled to Greece, more specifically to Odysseus' home island of Ithaca, to host several events and stream the listen-through party of the entirety of EPIC: The Musical, which has been a tradition since the release of The Thunder Saga.
- Unfortunately (and somewhat fittingly considering the source material), the trip was plagued with issues and Jorge was unable to stream when it was originally scheduled due to several complications, including poor reception on the island and a large storm occurring.
