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Happy New Years to everyone! I have a long list of candidates to get through in the starting months of 2025 and why not start with Polites just in time with the conclusion of Epic (as a concept album at least)
What's the Work?
EPIC: The Musical is an official concept album written by Jorge Rivera-Herrans and inspired by Greek Mythology, serving as a retelling of Homer's Odyssey in the form of a classic musical. The story is divided into several sagas, beginning with the Troy Saga in 2022 and ending with the Ithaca Saga in 2024. Each saga details a part of Odysseus' journey to return home to his wife and son.
Who is he? What has he done?
Polites is a mayor and pivotal character in the musical, though he only appears in the Troy and Cyclops Sagas before his death, he continues on as a lingering presence throughout the musical, ocassionally appearing as motivation for Odysseus. He was Ody's best friend and close confidant, as well as the only pacifist among the fleet who believed in a world where violence is not necessary for survival.
Polites has always been a kind and generous individual, even when living as a warrior in the ruthless world of ancient greece. When the Trojan War began, Polites was among the six hundred men from Ithaca who departed to fight in the war, survivng the conflict's ten year span. He first appears in "Full Speed Ahead" as the crew is sailing back to Ithaca but has ran out of food, Polites solves the problem by pointing out a light in a distant island and suggesting the possibility of people lighting a fire, disagreeing with Eurylochus' idea of attacking the possible inhabitants. He and Odysseus instead chose to go ahead and scout, giving the remaining men the order to attack if they don't retunr by morning. While the two explore, Polites tries to get Odysseus to relax for a while and ease his guilt over the lives he took during the war, especially Prince Hector's infant son. He succeeds in making his friend calm until the Lotus Eaters present themselves, with Polites convincing Odysseus to not attack them without provocation which proved to be a good thing as they provided them with food. However when Odysseus notices the food they've been given is lotus fruit that controls the mind, Polites still wishing to prove to his friend the benefits of kindness and empathy asks the Lotus Eaters where there might be more food, getting the location of a cave.
Polites and Odysseus then lead a group of men to the cave filled with sheep, however as the first sheep is slain, a Cyclops reveals himself to be inhabiting the cave and accuses the crew of killing his sheep, later attacking them after Odysseus fails to convince him to spare them. Polites then joined his friends in trying to take down the Cyclops until it pulled out a club and started his assault on the men by killing Polites and then collapsing soon afterwards due to being dr*gged by Odysseus. Inmediately after this, Polites' death alongside other fallen soldiers would inspire Odysseus to keep moving forward as to not let them die in vain, telling his crew to remember them and gaining the motivation to blind Polyphemus and escape with the sheep, meaning Polites posthumously did succeed in feeding the fleet. Polites' ideals would also inspire Odysseus to try to be more merciful and spare Polyphemus instead of killing him in spite of Athena's insistence, something also shown in the Ocean Saga as Odysseus tells Eurylochus he still believes in goodness and that they could use their hearts to lead and be kind instead of violent.
In spite of his untimely demise, Polites' influence would continue to have a massive impact throughout the following sagas, as Polites served as not just the motivational support for Ody but the whole fleet as well, being someone who could bring hope in dark times, further evidenced by the crew stating that everything had changed since Polites' death in "Keep Your Friends Close". Later when the crew travelled to the Underworld to search for Tiresias, Polites' is the only deceased soul from Odysseus' crew to not serve as an obstacle, as the souls of the fleets drowned by Poseidon preyed on Ody's guilt as a hallucination caused by the Underworld, however as Ody begins to doubt himself, Polites' soul appears to him, still upholding his peaceful ideology in death, showing his final wish was to still be a good man. Polites' death then served as one of the reasons Odysseus chose to embrace ruthlessness, which allowed him to reach Ithaca.
In the Wisdom Saga, Odysseus still thinks of Polites and hears his voice and later when Poseidon nearly kills him, Polites is the first one to greet Odysseus.
Corrupting Qualities
Virtually...none =). Polites is shown throughout his appearances to be a genuinely kind individual who wishes to spare his enemies when possible and is only willing to fight when it's necessary to protect his comrades. Through and through, he is the most benevolent in the crew, and among him, Odysseus and Eurylochus, he is the only one to never become more violent or a fallen hero, as well as being the crew member most fondly remembered by Ody.
Admirable Standard
Now this is where it gets slightly tricky, however the Musical doesn't really have many heroes, as Polites only needs to compete with Ody, Eury, Telemachus, Athena, and Hermes. Now it's unfair to compare Polites, who is a mortal man with no extraordinary abilites to the Olympian Gods, but even then he still has to compete with his friends and Telemachus. However, Eurylochus is ultimately a more villainous presence as he caused the arrival to Ithaca to be delayed twice, and Telemachus and Odysseus both have more resources by far:
- Telemachus is the Prince of Ithaca and later also gets Athena on his side as her new Warrior of the mind, becoming a large enough threat that the suitors waited until he was absent to make an attempt on Penelope (and even then his most admirable act of fighting the suitors is shared with his father), whereas Odysseus had Athena's blessing from the start and was by far the most capable of the crew, not to mention that he is one of Greece's most well known heroes, even considered the best one after Achilles' death (though this is greek myths so I'm not sure if it's 100% canon to EPIC) and later got Hermes' blessing once more to fight Circe with molly and is also speculated to have gotten Ares' blessing to fight Poseidon, though even if this is not confirmed, the wind bag provided by Hermes still greatly aided him
Ultimately Polites stands out enough due to not only being able to save the entire fleet (including Odysseus himself) from starvation as he is the one who got the Lotus Eaters to tell them the cave's location (and Polites was unaware it was a Cyclops' home), but also serving as a driving force of motivation for the remaining men (at least until the Underworld Saga), and one of the reasons Ody survived and made it home as Odysseus embracing Polites' ideology ever so briefly to convince Circe to let his men go allowed them to leave the island and continue their voyage. Even Athena acknowledged in the end that Polites' mindset was the right one.
Final Verdict
Let's greet him with an Open Yes