Ok, Epic The Musical interpretation time. First off, if you havent seen it, go look it up, its a banger, we have 3 "chapters" out, a musical of oddyseus's journey starting from Troy(and killing Astyanax the baby) and all the way to back home, currently we are at "Poseidon says hi" with Ruthlessness. (Additional context, Polyphemus is Poseidon's son, and after he attacks them Odysseus and his men leave him blind and escape)
For a while I thought the "...finally time to say goodbye today you die unless of course you apologize..." line was Poseidon being dishonest. My initial impression was that Poseidon had already decided to kill them, but was giving Odysseus a chance to fuck up more. That apology isnt to see if he should go easy, it is to see if he gets more reasons to kill him by refusing to apologize.
Which is a very god thing to do. But in my recent listenings I noticed an alternative. Its that the "apology" is an unintentional insult.
The song "ruthlessness" is Poseidon lecturing and scolding Odysseus, "I gotta make you bleed, I need to see you drown, but before we go I need to make you learn how ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves". And throughout the song he constantly scolds him about his naivete and kindness.
Cause you fight to save lives but wont kill and dont get the job done. I mean you totally could've avoided all this had you just killed my son. But noooo.
You are far too nice, Mercy has a price! (...) you reveal your name, then you let him live!
And when he asks for an apology he frames it as "for my son's pain, And all his cries".
Here, Odysseus does apologize, saying "we meant no harm, we only disarmed him, we didnt want to, we just wanted to escape".
On the surface, that is an apology, but in the context of the song, it is an insult. Because Poseidon wants Odysseus to apologize for Not Killing His Son. But Odysseus apologizes for hurting him. Essentially refuting the message of the song.
Which is why Poseidon's response is
The line between naivete and hopefullness is almost invisible. So close your hearr. The world is dark and- (Ruthlessness is mercy-) DIE.
At no point does he scold Odysseus for the act of hurting Polyphemus unless it is in the frame of "you shouldve finished the job".
