See, I'm a HUGE lover for this musical, but I can still point out its flaws, okay? Let's keep the conversation civil.
I personally think that The Odyssey by Homer handles many female characters better than EPIC, despite the more patriarchal society Homer(?) lived in, or rather, since we don't know if Homer was real, let's say The Odyssey was written in.
Let's tackle the first female character named in EPIC. Our main character Odysseus' driving force, Penelope. Now, Penelope has a HUGE role in EPIC's storyline, obviously. She is the reason Odysseus' wants to go home, and the reason Odysseus uses to justify his actions. But, we're introduced to Penelope in only Song 36/40, The Challenge (putting aside the KYFC dream and the siren). Now, this is okay, I suppose. Though I'd have loved to see Penelope have more screen time, maybe its because we, as an audience, are looking at everything from Odysseus' POV, and so the musical builds anticipation in us, like "Who is this woman Odysseus wants to go home to so badly?"
And the musical never answer that question. Why does Odysseus want to go home to her so badly? We're not given enough characterisation to Penelope to be able to understand that. Like, the musical never makes me go, "Ah, I see why Odysseus loves her so much." She's loyal to the core, sure, but Odysseus doesn't know that, and neither do we until we meet her. And The Challenge does very little to make her a fully-fleshed out character.
In The Odyssey, though its not explicitly stated, we can see why Odysseus loves his wife. For example, Odysseus describes to Nausicaa the perfect marriage, and uses the word 'homophrosyne', or 'like-mindedness', saying that a couple must be 'united in thoughts'. This word describes Odysseus and Penelope's marriage perfectly. Penelope is an equal to Odysseus' cunning, and its not very evident in EPIC (except for maybe the bed test, but the way its rewritten slightly makes it less apparent)
Penelope's cunning and wisdom, that we're shown in The Odyssey, is not seen in EPIC. We get a passing mention of the shroud trick, but that was barely anything. We don't get to see Penelope playing the suitors with her "suave, seductive words" (not my words, Homer's), we don't get an explanation as to how she held down the fort for 20 years while Odysseus was away. And its very clear she's an amazing ruler in The Odyssey, because when Odysseus first meets Penelope in disguise, the first thing he does is praises her and compares her to an efficient king. We're not shown Penelope's challenges and pressures completely. We see that the suitors are bad people from Telemachus' POV, but we don't see how the suitors, her father and brothers, and even Telemachus himself pressure her to get remarried. We don't see her people gossip about her, or any of the disloyal maids.
A lot of this characterisation isn't present in EPIC. The Challenge paints her as a woman longing for her husband's return, and this is present in Homer's Odyssey (like, the number of times we see Penelope crying in her bed), but do we really get anything else about her? Oh well, that's about it for Penelope.
Let's talk about Circe. Circe is still terrifying in EPIC. I mean, Eurylochus' part in Puppeteer clearly tells us that. Done For also does justice to her character, with the fight scene and the back-and-forth between Odysseus and Circe is very well done, and There Are Other Ways, with her trying to kill Odysseus by seducing him is also okay. But I have a problem with the "The last time we let strangers in we faced a heavy loss" line. Like... why? Why does this exist? Are we trying to justify Circe's actions by showing her as a victim first? But yes, in the storyline and theme of EPIC, with the whole 'ruthless is mercy' lesson, I can see why this was an inclusion, and I'm okay with it. It irks me a bit, and I'll discuss why later on. So not much to say on Circe.
Penelope in The Odyssey is a more fleshed-out character than EPIC, and could've been done better. And the unnecessary SA undertones added in EPIC's Antinous amplify that 'damsel in distress' trope.
Calypso.... ahaha, this is a huge discussion. I absolutely hate the way Calypso was written in EPIC, especially while keeping Hold Them Down in mind. I don't like how Not Sorry For Loving You tries to justify abuse and imprisonment, because just two songs ago, we see that Odysseus is very, very depressed from his seven years on the island, like he is in The Odyssey as well. Now, I know that Calypso SA-ing Odysseus is not canon to EPIC, and I'm okay with that. If the writer doesn't want to handle sensitive topics, then that's their choice. It starts getting problematic when Hold Them Down comes up, where SA was include in a part which the original story didn't have. Now, as for the whole backstory part that is a modern invention, it goes to show how media can't digest the fact that a woman can be abusive without being a victim of abuse. The whole 'she didn't know better' (she should've, she's a goddess), and 'she's completely lonely', that doesn't justify her harmful actions. EPIC goes out of its way to make the audience sympathise with Calypso when it was completely unnecessary to the plot. And for what?
Homer's Calypso is a goddess, and she knows right and wrong. Yet she chooses to keep Odysseus, and when Hermes comes over and tells her Zeus demands to let her go, she opposes it, points out the double standard and the hypocrisy of male gods! In a poem from 3000 years ago! And she's not victimised either, she just is in the Odyssey, a divine being who loves Odysseus but does not care about his emotions.
As for Athena, no notes. 10/10 character arc, in my opinion. Scylla is done pretty well. One song and I'm already loving this character. Charybdis? Bro, do we even count her as a character LOL?
Now, the whole point of this long essay is that its almost as if EPIC can't write women as anything but victims. Its just the 'damsel in distress' trope by rebranded, and not a very healthy way to depict women in media. Like men, women can be morally flawed as well, but media nowadays doesn't really know how to portray that. But that being said, here's to a future of well-written women!
Edit: "Circe's actions in The Odyssey don't have the such a justification, and giving her a motivation is EPIC's inclusion. My takes on Penelope's characterisation were based on The Odyssey, meanwhile.
But when I look at Circe as a character alone, I'm completely fine with the way she's written, and even the backstory. It supports EPIC's theme of 'ruthlessness is mercy' and doesn't confuse our modern-day audience over why she decided to do a bit of 'swine-ification'. But looking at it alongside the other female characters in EPIC, it seemed as if victimisation was a sort of recurring pattern in EPIC, and that's why I included it."
