Love in Paradise Lyrics - Epic: The Musical

Song Overview

Song Credits

• Featured: Barbara Wangui, Teagan Earley, Kira Stone, Steven Rodriguez, Talya Sindel, Mason Olshavsky, KJ Burkhauser, Armando Julián, Steven Dookie, Wanda Herrans
• Album: EPIC: The Musical – The Wisdom Saga (Concept Album)
• Release Date: 2024-08-30
• Genre: Orchestral Pop / Musical Theater
• Language: English
• Composer & Writer: Jorge Rivera-Herrans
• Label: Winion Entertainment LLC
• Mood: Dramatic, Mythic, Melancholy
• Track Number: 29
• Sampled Tracks: “Remember Them”, “Keep Your Friends Close”, “Ruthlessness”, “Done For”, “No Longer You”, “Different Beast”, “Scylla”, “Thunder Bringer”, “Open Arms”, “The Underworld”, “Luck Runs Out”

Song Meaning and Annotations

Love in Paradise is a song by Jorge Rivera-Herrans, Barbara Wangui, Teagan Earley, Kira Stone, Steven Rodriguez, Talya Sindel, Mason Olshavsky, and Track 29 on EPIC: The Musical. The song begins with Athena standing on the edge of the hourglass in her Quick-Thought dimension, recalling her mistake of thinking of Odysseus as an old friend. She realizes that they were more like friends, but it's too late to fix that.

Athena starts the time dive, jumping off the Quick-Thought hourglass into Odysseus's memories. She looks into his tragic journey from the end of the Cyclops Saga to the end of Mutiny in the Thunder saga. Athena feels pity for Odysseus, one of her favorite mortals, and strengthens her resolve to save him from Calypso.

The lyrics in the song include lines from "Keep Your Friends Close," "Ruthlessness," "Done For," "No Longer You," "Different Beast," "Scylla," and "Thunder Bringer." Zeus's electronic music is heard between each line, and the sound of thunder is heard after Odysseus says "I know" as Zeus kills the crew with lightning.

Athena stands on a boat between Odysseus and Eurylochus, looking back and forth at them as they speak. Odysseus is still bleeding from the stab wound Perimedes gave him in "Mutiny," leading against the mast. When Odysseus says "I know," he points at Eurylochus, which is reflected in Athena's eye as her pupil dilates.

Athena asks Odysseus where he went after seeing the boat destroyed by Zeus. She sees that Odysseus has changed, becoming more ruthless, like both she and Poseidon advised him to do. This line could have two meanings: 1) she sees that the happy, merciful Odysseus she once knew has gone, or 2) Odysseus disappeared after the events of "Thunder Bringer" and no one has seen him since.

In The Odyssey, Odysseus falls into the ocean after falling into the ocean due to Zeus's lightning bolt during Thunder Bringer. He washes ashore on Ogygia, the lost island of Calypso, a woman cursed with immortality who cannot leave the isle. Calypso reveals that Odysseus had been sleeping for a long time after finding him on the island, and she thought he was dead. However, as Calypso saw Odysseus wake up, she got hope that her dream could come true.

The island is described in flowery terms, which are common symptoms of PTSD sufferers. Odysseus struggles to come to terms with everything that happened when he returns home. Penelope, Odysseus' wife, is the wife of 108 arrogant and violent suitors who were getting more impatient. Calypso dismisses the fact that Odysseus is married and believes she will get what she wants regardless.

Calypso is trying to convince Odysseus to stay on her island and abandon Penelope, but Odysseus is too devoted to his wife to abandon her. Calypso's Island/Prison is mentioned in Homer's The Odyssey Book V. Calypso, the daughter of Atlas, was imprisoned due to her involvement in the Titanomachy. She promised to make Odysseus immortal under the condition that he stay with her, which he didn't actually want to do. They had two children in Greek mythology: Nausithous and Nausinous.

In "Just a Man," Calypso sings "I'm not your man" in the same melody as "I'm just a man" in "Just a Man" and "There Are Other Ways." Jorge explains that Calypso has her own form of ruthlessness, keeping Odysseus on her island so she can be happy and believe she is the best for him.

Calypso's out-of-touchness with Odysseus shows how out of touch she is with him. She falls in love with Odysseus, the first man/s she's probably seen in years, and talks as if he were a toy of a fair prize, almost feeling like she's not acknowledging that he is human.

In "There Are Other Ways," Odysseus struggles with his feelings for his wife, Calypso, who has become traumatized and drifted away from the pacifist philosophy taught by Polites in Open Arms. His desperation is at its peak, and he is willing to do whatever it takes to return to Penelope and Telemachus, as seen in Thunder Bringer, where he chooses his own life over the rest of the crew.

Odysseus' love for his wife is exploited by Athena in her battle with Hera. His loyalty is what will get Hera to agree to release him, as even in the original Odyssey, he is tricked into cheating and not doing it of his own accord.

In "Not Sorry For Loving You," Calypso explains that she has been trapped on an island alone for a hundred years, so it is possible that she has attempted suicide. This could be why she says "But last I checked, goddesses can't die" – her way of checking was trying to kill herself.

Odysseus has fear in his voice when he asks about Calypso, as he has already had negative experiences with the gods, specifically Zeus, Athena, Poseidon, and Circe. Calypso is generally said to be the daughter of the Titan Atlas, and her mother is mostly unnamed. She is more of a nymph, even a titaness.

The line "Oh handsome, you may try" could be foreshadowing Athena's fate at the end of the next song, "God Games." Calypso's hair glows with purple highlights, suggesting a more sinister tone than she lets on. The official animatic, which includes Calypso's hair glowing with purple highlights, further supports this idea.

Gods in Epic have a reputation of treating mortals' lives as games, as seen with Aeolus, Circe, Hermes, Zeus, and others involved in God Games. Calypso knows he needs to get home and doesn't care, as it's just a game to her and she's here for entertainment.

While she may not cause Odysseus physical pain, the fact that she SA'd him for like 7 years would certainly cause a great deal of psychological pain and trauma. Along with knowing that his actions led to the deaths of his friends, his crew, and his mother, Calypso's treatment of Odysseus is likely one of the reasons she has to talk him away from committing suicide later in the song.

In the Odyssey, Calypso reveals her immortality, which shifts the tone of the music to become more ominous as Odysseus realizes his peril. The chorus then switches back into a major key, possibly symbolizing Calypso's optimism about her situation or her insanity. The transition from "all you could need here" to "all we could need here" shows the building desperation of Calypso on keeping Odysseus.

Odysseus is trapped on Ogygia, Calypso's island, for seven years. The island is described as remote and isolated, with the name "Calypso" meaning "hidden." Odysseus is convinced something has become of him through divine punishment or supernatural occurrences that have trapped him on the isle. Despite his suffering, Odysseus cannot seem to plan accordingly, seemingly in denial that this is his fate.

Odysseus ends up staying seven years with Calypso, as she wants to marry him herself. Calypso finds it irrelevant and insinuates that he has no choice in the matter. After the events in Thunder Bringer, Odysseus washes up on the shores of Ogygia, the island where Calypso lives. Calypso would not let Odysseus leave the island for seven long years, as she wanted to marry him herself. As a titan, there was nothing Odysseus could do about wanting to leave, and thus he stayed trapped.

Athena takes on the role of narrator in this song, but her motif seems to be breaking and wearing down. Calypso tries to comfort Odysseus and stop him from committing suicide. Calypso has been trapped on this island alone for a hundred years, and her "But last I checked, goddesses can't die" line from earlier in the song means it is possible that Calypso was depressed and has attempted suicide. Calypso could be telling Odysseus the things she would have wanted someone to say to her when she was feeling hopeless.

Two sagas later, the death toll for his fallen friends has become significantly higher, and Odysseus's resolve for going back home has weakened. He decides to commit suicide rather than stay with Calypso in a loveless trap with no reason to live. Calypso attempts to appeal to his emotions and truly tries to make Odysseus feel at home, but he has made up his mind and vents about how she will never understand the pain he has gone through over the 20 years he has been at sea, and the horrors of both war and divine meddling he has seen.

Eurylochus's nickname for Odysseus, "Ody," helps trigger Ody's PTSD a few verses later with "I'll stay inside your heart" and "Stay in my open arms." Calypso seems genuinely concerned about Odysseus and unsure of how to fix the situation. She may be a goddess, but she is evidently unequipped to heal someone suffering PTSD. Her words combined with the tone of voice indicate that she is hoping that if she could "get through" to him and convince him to come back inside, his despair may pass and things can return to whatever "normal" has been for them on her island after he washed up on shore. She keeps referring to him as "love of my life," so even though Ody is uninterested in anyone but Penelope, it is likely that Calypso's attempts to console and care for him are genuine.

In "Keep Your Friends Close," Odysseus is told by Penelope and Telemachus to keep his eyes open, indicating his exhaustion and desire to give up. This line is also used in "Just a Man," where Odysseus tells the infant to "spare [him] the view." The phrase "close your eyes" could be a reference to the underworld saga, where Odysseus says that every time he dares to close his eyes, he no longer dreams of those who died.

Two callbacks from "The Underworld Saga" are used to showcase Calypso's desperation and Odysseus' hopelessness and PTSD. The first line from Calypso, "I'll stay inside your heart," calls back to Anticlea's final thoughts when he encounters her in the Underworld. The second line from Odysseus, "All I hear are screams," is a callback to the beginning of "The Underworld Saga," when Odysseus sings "All I hear are screams, every time I dare to close my eyes."

Calpyso's line "Life would be so much worse if you had died" shows how Calpyso didn't understand Odysseus's suffering and only cared about herself. Over the years, Odysseus has developed PTSD from the horrors he's seen, and the words "open arms" seem to have become a trigger for him.

In "No Longer You," Tiresias warns Odysseus about being on the brink of death. Odysseus recalls the words of his friends and mother, including Polites, Eurylochus, and Anticlea, who have all died. Odysseus calls out to Athena for help, despite not seeing her for ten years. Athena decides to help her old friend, and the God Games begin.

With no plan or soul, Odysseus gives into the feeling of Calypso's embrace but makes one final call to a friend who can never leave him. He must greet the world with open arms and get his luck back.

Trapped in Myth, Drowning in Memory

"Love in Paradise" is not your typical musical theater ballad — it’s a haunted memory with a pulse, a theatrical odyssey through trauma and temptation, and a scathing meditation on psychological captivity. Embedded deep within the story arc of *EPIC: The Musical*, this track drops us onto Calypso’s island, a place deceptively lush but spiritually suffocating. Verse 1 opens with the familiarity of war-scarred mythos:

[ATHENA] Old friend, it's been ten years since I last saw you

We’re instantly reminded that time has folded Odysseus into a relic of his former self. The ghosts of Poseidon, Circe, Tiresias, and others echo through these lines, each delivering a distilled punch of past confrontations. This isn't just a recap — it’s a chorus of trauma. When Calypso enters, her voice oozes seduction and delusion:

[CALYPSO] I'm what you want here, I'm what you need here Just you and me, my love in paradise

Here, paradise is a prison. Her language mimics the singsong of a captor dressing chains in ribbons. It’s love with Stockholm Syndrome undertones — and Odysseus doesn’t buy it.

The Illusion of Safety

The song hinges on duality — external calm versus internal storm.

[ODYSSEUS] All I hear are screams

This refrain hits like a blade every time. It’s PTSD set to melody. The real horror isn’t Calypso’s magic but the memory of his fallen comrades and the weight of failure. The bridge section, a montage of voices — Polites, Eurylochus, Anticlea — flashes like a panic attack:

This life is amazing when you greet it with open arms... How much longer 'til your luck runs out?

It plays like a broken record of hollow reassurance, as if Odysseus's mind is stuttering through hope and doom in equal measure. That juxtaposition is masterful.

Production Notes

Musically, it’s lush and disorienting. Layered harmonies mimic waves lapping at the psyche, while orchestral swells swell like suppressed emotion. Each character is sonically distinct — Calypso’s lullaby-like delivery contrasted with Odysseus’s jagged intensity creates emotional whiplash. The production traps you just as Calypso traps him.

Similar Songs

1. “On My Own” – from *Les Misérables* Both are sung by characters stuck in longing. Calypso mirrors Éponine’s loneliness, though hers is more coercive than passive. Where Éponine wallows in unrequited love, Calypso uses it like a weapon. Tonally, both songs ache, but "Love in Paradise" carries mythic stakes.
2. “Gethsemane” – from *Jesus Christ Superstar* Like Odysseus, Jesus here is caught in a moment of spiritual agony and forced reflection. The pleading, the crescendoing turmoil — it’s all there. Both songs wrestle with fate, sacrifice, and a crushing sense of inevitability.
3. “Wait for It” – from *Hamilton* This is Burr’s internal monologue set to a beat — much like Odysseus processing survival. The rhythmic pacing, the introspective tone, the self-justifying logic — they echo each other. Both men know loss, power, and the cost of love.

Questions and Answers

Why does Odysseus resist Calypso’s affection?

Because her love isn’t freedom — it’s a gilded cage. His heart belongs to Penelope, and staying means forgetting his purpose and fallen comrades.

What role does Athena play in this song?

She acts as a spiritual anchor and narrator, threading Odysseus’s timeline while highlighting the psychological erosion he's endured.

What does the phrase "All I hear are screams" signify?

It encapsulates Odysseus’s PTSD, survivor’s guilt, and internal torment, making it the emotional core of the entire track.

Is “Love in Paradise” a solo or ensemble number?

It’s a hybrid — part solo lament, part musical collage. Voices from past songs intrude, creating a choral hallucination that blurs reality and memory.

How does this song fit into the narrative of EPIC: The Musical?

It marks the psychological climax of Odysseus’s journey — a moment where he must choose between temptation and legacy, stagnation and return.

Awards and Chart Positions

• Released as part of the critically acclaimed *EPIC: The Wisdom Saga* concept album
• Over 283,000 views within months of release
• Praised for complex storytelling and vocal performances

Fan and Media Reactions

“Every time I hear ‘All I hear are screams,’ I get chills. PTSD has never been so raw on stage.” — @epic_theatrekid

“I didn’t expect to cry from a song about a mythological hero, but here we are.” — @mythos_nerd42

“Calypso is terrifyingly seductive. This is how villains get fan clubs.” — @castaway4lyfe

“The orchestration is movie-level. This isn’t just a musical, it’s an opera for Gen Z.” — @theatregothmood

“Odysseus’s emotional breakdown is too real. It’s like musical therapy.” — @dionysusfangirl