#The Horse and the Infant

[nightlilly0110]

Zeus: The gods will tell him what you did when he grows up and he’ll kill you and everything you love.

Odysseus: Why?

Zeus: Why what?

Odysseus: If I raise him and he’s my second son, I’m his father, yes?

Zeus: I guess.

Odysseus: And this is a baby, so he won’t remember his real father? I mean, look at him. He doesn’t even know what’s going on right now and half the city is on fire and I just burst in here with a sword. Zero reaction.

Zeus: I guess-

Odysseus: So why would he be mad at me for killing a dude who did not raise him and he doesn’t remember? I’d be his dad. Maybe he’d be mad I stole him from his home but he’d have no emotional connection to these people.

Zeus: I don’t know how those work.

Odysseus: You mean children?!

[a-very-sparkly-nerd]

Zeus: "If you don't end him now, you'll have no one left to save."

Athena: "Finish it."

Aeolus: "The end always justifies the means."

Poseidon: "Ruthlessness is mercy."

Hermes: "You can be hurt or you can beat her. ... I'll help you conquer her."

Tiresias: "I see a man who gets to make it home alive, but it's no longer you."

Hestia, probably:

[rustic-space-fiddle]

Forgive me.

[thelucidduchess]

Unpopular opinion but Wouldn’t You Like is really good and people should pay more attention to it

[clayfellover]

in honour of the underworld saga coming out soon i finally decided to make epic shitposts

[awnrii]

100% totally serious The Horse and The Infant animatic

bonus below

for your viewing pleasure

[gotstabbedbyapen]

I understand that many people prefer the Odysseus raising Astyanax AU because killing an infant is cruel. But you guys need to remember that cities have been doomed because people didn't dispose of their prophesied-to-do-evil babies correctly.

Oedipus was prophesied to kill his father and marry his mother, so he need to be rid of. The servant who was supposed to kill Oedipus spared and sent him away. Years later, Thebes lost its rulers and was wrecked with plagues.

Paris was dream-prophesied to cause the fall of Troy, so he need to be rid of. The shepherd who was supposed to kill Paris spared and secretly raised him as his son. You see what turned out for the whole city later on.

You see the resemblances with Odysseus' pleas?

"I could raise him as my own

Or send him far away from home

Make sure his past is never known."

Zeus weren't just being an unreasonable jerk for making Odysseus kill Astyanax. That child was prophesied to be the destruction of all surviving Greeks who sacked his city, whether out of his own rage or accidentally through some chains of events.

Odysseus knew the preceeding stories and how it had turned out. So he could only do what needs to be done if he wanted to save his family, his allies, and himself.

It's only one life to take to save thousands of other lives. For once, Ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves was the right choice.

[nonbinarylocalcryptid]

Astyanax, like every child out there, would totally give Odysseus mini heart attacks. Not only the usual ones (climbing somewhere too high for a kid, eating something he shouldn't, etc), he would also quote parts from Zeus' prophecy in The Horse and The Infant.

Picture this, Astyanax, 6 years old, they're playing tag you're it, Odysseus is chasing him (and letting the kid run away).

Odysseus: come here!

Astyanax: No! I'm faster than you! You can't outrun me!

"Odysseus trips in a cartoonish way*

Or this other possibility.

Astyanax, smol, shitting on a barrel, curious and distracting everyone from their duties on deck: we should play something

Eurylochus: Can't. We are all working

Astyanax: why?

Eurylochus: so we get to Ithaca faster

Astyanax: Hm, that's your motivation?

Eurylochus: that's what fuels me

Astyanax: then I fueled with rage

Odysseus drinking water in the vicinity: *almost shocks*

Astyanax: Perimedes said that's a good motivator

*Odysseus sighs in relief*

Eurylochus: don't listen to Perimedes

[thesevenstarfoxes]

"Odysseus could have raised Astyanax as his own son! He shouldn't have killed him! Zeus is just an idiot who doesn't understand anything about children!"

Imagine you are Astyanx. Imagine that one day, you discover that your father, the man you thought was your father, is actually the murderer of your real father, who stole you from your cradle. Imagine that for years, you see your father lying to everyone, but the thought never crossed your mind that he might be lying to you. How do you know he didn't take you to ensure Troy would have no heir to the crown? That he took you to one day make you a puppet king in Troy for him? He's such a good liar, how do you know he wasn't lying when he looked you in the eye and said, "I love you, my son."

You know that your father—no, he's not your father, never was—did terrible things, but it never crossed your mind that you were one of the terrible things he did. You are a Trojan prince. You are Hector's son. You are not a little orphan from the battlefield that Odysseus took pity on. Odysseus destroyed your city. Odysseus lied to you. Odysseus has manipulated you. And Odysseus will PAY.

So many Greek tragedies tell about exactly this - about the attempt to prevent a tragedy, and about how the attempt failed, just as the gods and prophets had warned. If Astyanax had stayed alive, he would have murdered Odysseus' family no matter what Odysseus did, because that's how Greek tragedies work.

and yes, zeus suck.

[epicthemusicalstuff]

“The blood on your hands is something you won’t loose, all you can choose is whose” -Zeus (The Horse and the Infant)

“Wash it away like the blood your hands have known” -Hermes (Dangerous)

[bugbear55]

the horse and the infant

do we think that the baby smiled at odysseus while he was lifting it out of it’s cradle? i do

[ninadove]

“A mission

To kill someone’s son

A foe who won’t run

Unlike anyone you have faced before”

FUCK YOU ZEUS FUCK YOU ACTUALLY

[unironicallyroyal]

Odysseus: I’ll make sure this baby never knows about his past so he can stay alive and live happily ever after

Zeus: All of Olympus will literally snitch your ass

[randomhuman45]

So I was relistening to Epic: The Musical (as one does) and imagining it on stage (as one does) and YO! Great idea!

Odysseus finds infant in blanket

Odysseus saves blanket after Just A Man

Blanket is on his person like on his belt or something and he constantly grabs onto it

Singing the line "I'm just a man" throughout the 1st act

When he tells his men not to kill the cyclops in Remember Them

Singing to dream Penelope "but I'm the same!!"

When he tells Athena he can't sleep at night

He or Posieden reach out to it during the lines "if you just killed me son// but no"

During Puppeteer while explaining he can't leave his men

In The Underworld "I keep thinking of the infant from that night"(x2)

Odysseus fully pulls out the blanket during the song Monster looking at in his hands in the line "What if I'm the monster?"

Just as Odysseus raised his arm out holding the baby out he does the same to the blanket but this time he visibly drops the blanket to the audience in the line "And if I gotta to drop another infant from a wall in an instant so we all don't die, then I'll become the monster!"

It would make that part just as visibly insane as the audio and thematically, how I see it, it's not until that part of the musical that Odysseus ever actually kills the baby. Throughout the 1st act Odysseus is very much emotionally and mentally in the middle of the song Just A Man as he constantly grabs at any and all excuses/potential paths to NOT kill the thing that he knows he NEEDS to kill. He's still arguing with the Gods that he can "raise him as my own... send him far away from home.... make sure his past is never known" at every turn.

It's not until he FINALLY faces all of the consequences of those choices, the consequences that Zeus warns him of "he will burn your house down ... he will find you wherever you may go ... the Gods will make him known" that he actually comes to terms with the fact that he WILL kill and he never truly kills that infant until he sings that line in Monster.

That's just how I see it, and I think the visualization of Odysseus carrying around that blanket and constantly grabbing at it until he finally kills it, the infant, and his guilt; would just be a great way to represent that on stage.

[galaxy-flowergirl]

Something about the “I’ll rather bleed for you, I’m on my knees for you, I’m begging please” MAKES ME LOSE MY MIND

[schnitzelsemmerl]

ten years of war, they killed us slowly

but now,

we'll be the ones who SLAAAYYY ✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️