The New Odyssey: Epic the Musical

It is well known that Homer once told his stories orally. Eventually, after decades of oral tradition, Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey came to be written down in Ancient Homeric Greek. In modern days, one cannot even fathom that such complex epics were first heard rather than read...

However, one Jorge Rivera-Herrans decided to adapt The Odyssey to be heard once more– this time in the form of a musical!

Epic the Musical is a modern retelling of Homer’s The Odyssey which started to gain popularity on TikTok in 2022 with the song “Warrior of the Mind.” The musical is broken down into sagas, which are still coming out. The most recent installment–the seventh saga–came out in September of 2024. However, Epic does differ greatly from its original source material: to adapt to a more modern audience, Rivera took some creative liberty in choosing a more chronological order to the story and changing some elements to better fit an overarching message. 

While the first book of The Odyssey starts off with Athena attempting to convince Zeus to help Odysseus, Epic begins with the battle of Troy and the start of Odysseus’... well, odyssey! Rivera chose to tell the story in such a way as to appease his modern audience through making the order of events less complex for his listeners to understand. Furthermore, Rivera focuses heavily on Odysseus’ journey leading up to the death of his crew rather than dedicating a large portion of his musical to the aftermath. Although the musical is yet to be complete, the first six sagas out of nine focus on the journey as opposed to the original in which the journey is only roughly half of the story. Despite not being accurate to the original in this regard, the order in which this new version is told seems necessary in receiving the audience the musical has managed to garner. 

Official Art by Zwist.

Rivera also adds many elements to further the story he is portraying to the audience of the musical with his overarching message. He focuses especially on the character development of Odysseus by having him develop more of a personal relationship with his crew. As a result, he becomes truly changed throughout the narrative: he starts his journey with mercy when sparing the Cyclops, but ends with indifference and ruthlessness when with the Sirens. However, some choices made by Rivera are more so related to fitting the story into a musical format. For example, in The Odyssey, Odysseus is chained up as the crew passes through the territory of the Sirens. However, Odysseus screaming throughout the whole segment would not have been ideal for a musical. Therefore, Rivera has Odysseus put wax in his ears like the rest of his crew and use his intelligence to read the lips of the Sirens, forming a dialogue in one of the most popular songs called “Suffering.” Many of these choices, despite not being accurate to the original, allow for greater songs to emerge for the listener’s enjoyment.  

One unique aspect of Epic the Musical is that it is only a concept album, meaning that there is no acting or stage performance to go alongside the songs: it is supposed to be told purely in an oral form just like The Odyssey. To me, this is fascinating because Epic can easily stand alone as music without the use of visuals to back it up. However, much like Homer’s work, through time, many have expanded on the original material: animators have created art to support the songs. This was a natural evolution of the audio format, but it has created a dedicated community surrounding the musical.

One can say for certain that Epic the Musical has interested a whole new crowd to the story of The Odyssey. Through the creative liberties Rivera has taken in order to create his work, Epic has attracted a large audience to the interesting subject of Greek mythology.

Jorge Rivera-Herrans on Spotify.