BEEN WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO ASK THIS SO I CAN FORCE FEED PEOPLE MY OPINIONS ok here we go
So specifically in There Are Other Ways, Jay chose to opt out of that part of the story where Odysseus is forced to sleep with Circe in order to emphasize his loyalty to his wife as well as show Circe's capacity for grace/kindness. So to answer your question on a purely surface level--no. Odysseus did not sleep with Circe in EPIC specifically.
However. Not only do I personally disagree with this take, I also think it's created a good bit of unnecessary confusion and controversy over Odysseus as a character, so traits such as his loyalty to his wife (which is a central aspect of his character) is questioned.
I don't really like that Jay decided to change that part of the story specifically (no hate, just my opinion) because it feels like it took apart what could have been a really powerfully shown dynamic in order to overemphasize loyalty/kindness on the part of Odysseus and Circe respectively. The dynamic between Odysseus and Circe had the opportunity to be a really gorgeous complex dynamic (they could have brought back the Just a Man motif) between a mortal and a goddess. The fact that Odysseus DIDN'T sleep with Circe in EPIC makes me a little sad because we lost so much of the complexity that makes Odysseus such a good character--the painful and difficult-to-justify decisions he makes and how we as the readers try to make that gel with our modern perspective.
BUT ANYHOW HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED
In EPIC, Circe is defeated and attempts to sell herself in order to protect her nymphs from Odysseus. This creates a weird sort of power dynamic where she's attempting to seduce him as self defense and he's trying to resist it because whoa, what the fuck, I'm married etc etc. If it helps you can imagine her as a mage with like 2 hit points who's rolling for seduction because it's literally her last option. Meanwhile Odysseus is trying to force her to free his men at sword point and getting magically seduced at the same time. (if they'd actually gone through with it, it would have been a very odd mutual rape (?) situation)
This is the OPPOSITE of what happened in the actual Odyssey, where Odysseus was encouraged by Hermes to sell HIMSELF to Circe in order to keep his men safe. In the original myth, Circe was in power the whole time, and Odysseus was forced to beg for sanctuary and the freedom of his men. The price was his body, so he paid it. Again, the OPPOSITE of what happened in EPIC because Jay wanted to emphasize loyalty for Odysseus(which Makes Sense because you can't show Every Characteristic Ever Written in a musical medium) as a main character trait/potential fatal flaw. So we ditched the "Odysseus was forced to sleep with other women to get back to his wife" storyline and stuck with the "Ody loves his wife point blank period" bit.
NOW. The reason why this is not like "Say No to This" from Hamilton is because Odysseus DOES say no--he actively refuses Circe and asks her for help. Hamilton does the OPPOSITE. Also, it's a very different power dynamic from Hamilton--Alexander was a grown ass man talking to a young, married woman. He had nothing on the line but his reputation, and he made several conscious choices to sleep with Mariah Reynolds(eeww on so many levels but I digress).
Odysseus was a very mortal human guy (remember Just a Man?) at the mercy of a goddess who had his life and his men's lives completely under her control. Those are two WILDLY different power dynamics.
To emphasize this, in the book Odysseus is described as taking Circe's knees when he asks her to leave Ogygia. Taking someone's knees in ancient Greece was a posture of supplication--it was the only assured way that your host was required to listen to your request, and was typically only done in situations of desperation or extreme, high-tension situations. Odysseus has to BEG Circe to let him leave. He does something similar when asking her to release his men, and he's "deeply troubled in mind and heart" the whole time. That's not a consensual situation.
A lot of people are using this inaccuracy as far as the "source material" to hate on Odysseus because "he fucked his way up and down the Mediterranean" and "no one's acknowledging that Odysseus was a cheater lol"
which?? odysseus only slept with TWO women in the whole 20 years he was away from Ithaca and both of them were immortal (some people like to use hecuba as a gotcha, but let's be real. She's like 29 years older than him and he's happily married. I don't think so). so he was not "fucking his way up and down the Mediterranean"--he was COERCED and FORCED into sexual relationships with women goddesses who were significantly more powerful than him. I think the description of his relationship with Calypso was "one unwilling lover and the other all too willing" which is disgusting and it's extremely difficult to believe that anyone would characterize That as consent but ok
that was definitely way Too Much Information but I hope this helped!
