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On Epic the Musical and Homer
Oct. 15th, 2025 07:56 pmIt sure has been a while now!!
Hello again, everyone! I'm not sure of how active everyone is these days, but I do miss writing here a lot, even if I never wrote a lot in the first place... I had plans to talk about my first year of university by the time I was done with finals, but despite how well my exams went, I completely forgot to keep writing it, and it's been sitting on my drafts ever since then. I did want to come back eventually though, and I've just managed to find something to talk about!
As both a Classics student and a theatre fan, I've known about Epic: The Musical for a while. I think it's pretty popular by now, but to give a brief explanation of what it's about, it's a concept musical (that's to say, there's no stage production of it; the musical consists of several music albums alone) based on the Odyssey. As surprising as it might be, I hadn't listened to it until recently... but I finally did! And I have to say it's really, really good. As a musical, specifically, I think it's stellar. I love the leitmotifs and the callbacks to previous songs, and I think the voice actors all did amazing.
However, I worry what the general public's idea of it might be. Not because I don't think anyone should criticise it (it has its weak points too), but because I fear people will take it as a direct adaptation of the Odyssey and end up blorbofying the characters, which... well, no. If you want to get to know the Odyssey, your best bet's to read it yourself, not listen to a musical. On the other hand, I've seen classicists criticise it way too harshly, and I think referring to it as “a TikTok musical” is going too far and kind of rude to the insane work that must've gone behind its production. It's not an equivalent of the poem itself, and that's... fine. People are allowed to make things that are based on other things, and the Odyssey in particular is so well-known and old that I feel like it's just a direct consequence of its existence, lol.
I do think it's sad how it skipped certain plot points that are fundamental to the story (Nausicaa's not even there, how!?), and I don't like the interpretation of some characters/points (like the lotus eaters, for example; I feel like they're treated as these silly creatures when they're really not?), but on the other hand it brings some stuff to the table that I really like. So it's just a matter of preferences in the end, really, and my conclusion is that people should do whatever they want as long as they think twice about what they're listening to. When you listen to Epic, you have to keep in mind that it's a modern musical based on an epic poem from ages ago, and that of course there are limitations to the musical format. It has 40 songs in total, but even then there's some stuff you have to prioritise or skip, and I understand that.
Unfortunately, I'm sure there are people who've listened to it and taken it as “Well, I've basically read the Odyssey now!”, which is sad, but ultimately inevitable, I fear. I've been in fandom for so long that when I see people like that, I just move on. I do have to say though, IDK how comprehensible the entire thing is to someone who doesn't at least know the basic idea of the original poem, because I've known about it for so long that I just assume some things are common knowledge, lol. Musically though, it's great!! I think everyone who likes musicals and mythology should give it a listen, even if it's just for the tunes. Just know that it's not a direct adaptation of the original thing, and you're fine, I think.
Past the musical thing, I have been reading the Odyssey myself. I'd read a few adapted versions in middle school, but now I'm reading a more direct translation rather than a short version of it. And I'm not just reading it, I'm also translating it for class! We worked on the Iliad for a few weeks too, but I think I'm enjoying translating the Odyssey more. I feel like I have to clarify that I'm not translating the entire thing, we're working on some specific sections! It's really fun though, and Homer (...whoever that was, if he even existed at all, lol. The Homeric Question is a topic for another day, and I could genuinely make an entire post about it one day, but I fear it'd sound way too academic!) has a way of explaining things that's really beautiful. Working on the original text makes reading a translation all the more worth it, because I can tell what the original text says and how poetic it all is. I jokingly complain about this to my friends a lot, but I love how many words he uses to refer to the sea.
Overall, I'm really enjoying this chapter of my academic life where half of my classes are just... the Iliad and the Odyssey, lol. It gets a bit repetitive sometimes, that's true; but man, I understand why everyone's so crazy about Homer now. I've also been working on the Aeneid, but I fear I'm not going to enjoy the current part we're translating right now as much; so far it's just been Dido and her love for Aeneas, and I'm not a fan of reading about romance, much less translating it, but I'll live, haha.
...On the topic of romantic love, though, that's what I've been meaning to talk about as well, so maybe I'll finally lock in and write a long post about my aromanticism soon, which is something I've wanted to do for a while now. Hopefully that will be actually soon and not in another five months. Also, I've added yet another HSR icon to my roster even though I still don't play the story nor know what goes on in there; I DO know that Amphoreus is basically Ancient Greece though, and I think it's funny as hell that this guy's name is just. Anaxagoras. So I made him my icon accordingly, because what better way to return to my blog than to be a nerd in every way possible?
Until next time!
Hello again, everyone! I'm not sure of how active everyone is these days, but I do miss writing here a lot, even if I never wrote a lot in the first place... I had plans to talk about my first year of university by the time I was done with finals, but despite how well my exams went, I completely forgot to keep writing it, and it's been sitting on my drafts ever since then. I did want to come back eventually though, and I've just managed to find something to talk about!
As both a Classics student and a theatre fan, I've known about Epic: The Musical for a while. I think it's pretty popular by now, but to give a brief explanation of what it's about, it's a concept musical (that's to say, there's no stage production of it; the musical consists of several music albums alone) based on the Odyssey. As surprising as it might be, I hadn't listened to it until recently... but I finally did! And I have to say it's really, really good. As a musical, specifically, I think it's stellar. I love the leitmotifs and the callbacks to previous songs, and I think the voice actors all did amazing.
However, I worry what the general public's idea of it might be. Not because I don't think anyone should criticise it (it has its weak points too), but because I fear people will take it as a direct adaptation of the Odyssey and end up blorbofying the characters, which... well, no. If you want to get to know the Odyssey, your best bet's to read it yourself, not listen to a musical. On the other hand, I've seen classicists criticise it way too harshly, and I think referring to it as “a TikTok musical” is going too far and kind of rude to the insane work that must've gone behind its production. It's not an equivalent of the poem itself, and that's... fine. People are allowed to make things that are based on other things, and the Odyssey in particular is so well-known and old that I feel like it's just a direct consequence of its existence, lol.
I do think it's sad how it skipped certain plot points that are fundamental to the story (Nausicaa's not even there, how!?), and I don't like the interpretation of some characters/points (like the lotus eaters, for example; I feel like they're treated as these silly creatures when they're really not?), but on the other hand it brings some stuff to the table that I really like. So it's just a matter of preferences in the end, really, and my conclusion is that people should do whatever they want as long as they think twice about what they're listening to. When you listen to Epic, you have to keep in mind that it's a modern musical based on an epic poem from ages ago, and that of course there are limitations to the musical format. It has 40 songs in total, but even then there's some stuff you have to prioritise or skip, and I understand that.
Unfortunately, I'm sure there are people who've listened to it and taken it as “Well, I've basically read the Odyssey now!”, which is sad, but ultimately inevitable, I fear. I've been in fandom for so long that when I see people like that, I just move on. I do have to say though, IDK how comprehensible the entire thing is to someone who doesn't at least know the basic idea of the original poem, because I've known about it for so long that I just assume some things are common knowledge, lol. Musically though, it's great!! I think everyone who likes musicals and mythology should give it a listen, even if it's just for the tunes. Just know that it's not a direct adaptation of the original thing, and you're fine, I think.
Past the musical thing, I have been reading the Odyssey myself. I'd read a few adapted versions in middle school, but now I'm reading a more direct translation rather than a short version of it. And I'm not just reading it, I'm also translating it for class! We worked on the Iliad for a few weeks too, but I think I'm enjoying translating the Odyssey more. I feel like I have to clarify that I'm not translating the entire thing, we're working on some specific sections! It's really fun though, and Homer (...whoever that was, if he even existed at all, lol. The Homeric Question is a topic for another day, and I could genuinely make an entire post about it one day, but I fear it'd sound way too academic!) has a way of explaining things that's really beautiful. Working on the original text makes reading a translation all the more worth it, because I can tell what the original text says and how poetic it all is. I jokingly complain about this to my friends a lot, but I love how many words he uses to refer to the sea.
Overall, I'm really enjoying this chapter of my academic life where half of my classes are just... the Iliad and the Odyssey, lol. It gets a bit repetitive sometimes, that's true; but man, I understand why everyone's so crazy about Homer now. I've also been working on the Aeneid, but I fear I'm not going to enjoy the current part we're translating right now as much; so far it's just been Dido and her love for Aeneas, and I'm not a fan of reading about romance, much less translating it, but I'll live, haha.
...On the topic of romantic love, though, that's what I've been meaning to talk about as well, so maybe I'll finally lock in and write a long post about my aromanticism soon, which is something I've wanted to do for a while now. Hopefully that will be actually soon and not in another five months. Also, I've added yet another HSR icon to my roster even though I still don't play the story nor know what goes on in there; I DO know that Amphoreus is basically Ancient Greece though, and I think it's funny as hell that this guy's name is just. Anaxagoras. So I made him my icon accordingly, because what better way to return to my blog than to be a nerd in every way possible?
Until next time!
