EPIC: The Musical is a concept musical loosely adapting the story of the Odyssey, the famous Greek epic. Currently, it has eight “sagas” released, each featuring 3-5 songs, and “the Cyclops Saga” is the second of these! Spoiler warning for the musical, of course.

1. Polyphemus

In the intro to the saga, Odysseus and his crew sail to the cave that they were told about by the lotus eaters and promptly find and kill a bunch of sheep. However, they are confronted by a massive cyclops who lives in the cave, and whose sheep they have just killed. Odysseus attempts to bargain with it, and his wiles come into play. He is sure to give his name as “nobody” instead of Odysseus, and attempts to persuade the Cyclops to accept wine as a trade for the sheep. The Cyclops drinks the wine but refuses to let them go. Polyphemus’ (the name of the Cyclops, thus the name of the song) voice is done very well to be menacing and intimidating – you can almost visualize this hulking deadly figure. There are many small vocal melodies in this song that I find get stuck in my head from time to time.

2. Survive

Odysseus and the crew begin to make a stand against the Cyclops, but are swiftly taken aback by it bringing out a club and beginning to beat some of the crew to death. If you aren’t watching the musical with animatics (which I highly recommend) then it might not be as easily apparent to you: one of the crewmates that’s killed is Polites. This death affects Odysseus greatly for the rest of the journey: Polites was his best friend, and this is just after Polites encourages him to “greet the world with open arms”. Now, after Odysseus has tried bargaining with the Cyclops…look at where that got him? This song does a great job of raising tension through the beats of the club: each hit is another dead, and their cries for Odysseus (“captain!”) are utterly heartbreaking.

3. Remember Them

Thanks to Odysseus getting the Cyclops to drink the lotus wine in “Polyphemus”, it passes out. He and his crew manage to stab it in the eye. When the Cyclops attempts to get help, it says that “nobody” had blinded him. This is thanks to Odysseus’ introducing himself as Nobody earlier on and, of course, does not get him any assistance. Notably, Athena tells Odysseus to kill the Cyclops instead of just blinding him, but he refuses and tries to stick by Polites’ “open arms” philosophy. However, before they fully take off, Odysseus makes the mistake of turning around and telling the Cyclops his real name. Odysseus’ pride has gotten the better of him: he wants the Cyclops to know who beat him. This song causes a ripple of change that affects countless future events. If only he had just listened to Athena…

4. My Goodbye

In this song, Athena, who has been acting as Odysseus’ patron until this point, declares her separation from Odysseus. The two have a back and forth argument, each cutting deeper and deeper into each other’s insecurities. You can just feel the pent-up energy in the lyrics and the voice delivery, plus reiteration of Athena’s theme fading into the distance at the end of the song puts into perspective how alone he is. Teagan Earley, the voice of Athena, really shines here, and it is my personal favorite song of this saga.