How Is Odysseus A Good Leader

Odysseus was a great leader and hero throughout the story in many examples as I have listed below. My first example is when Odysseus was able to make a spear when he was in Polyphemus's cave. He then took the spear and drove it through the eye of the beast, blinding him. The cyclops then moved the boulder and the men escaped by hiding under sheep.This example shows that O. is a hero because he is daring. If the cyclops was to find any of them or he had missed and woken him then this surely would have meant death for them. The second reason is in book twelve when O. must pass the sirens. To do so he slabs beeswax on the ears of his shipmates. This will make it so them can not be lured into the captivity of the sirens. O. then lashes himself

First of all, Odysseus was very selfish during their journey back to Ithaca. For example,“We lit a fire, burnt an offering, and we took some cheese to eat; then sat in silence around the embers, waiting”(Homer 219-222). If Odysseus took the cheese and left, his men would not have had to dealt with Polyphemus. He put himself before his men because he wanted a gift from the cave owner. Odysseus was also selfish when he sailed near the lands of Sirens.“Steer wide; keep well to seaward; plug your oarsmen’s ears with beeswax kneaded soft”(Homer 669-671). Although Circe told Odysseus to steer clear of the area, Odysseus wanted to be known as the man who survived a Siren’s song. He put his own men in danger just because he wanted to become famous. Odysseus was also very arrogant to think that he could get past the Sirens.

Odysseus makes some substantial mistakes, thus leading to the failure to his men. Odysseus shows extremely inadequate leadership qualities throughout the story. When Odysseus is on the journey to Ithaka, he neglects to let his crew know how long they will be staying on each island. He also neglects to let them know of the journey that lies ahead. This is very poor leadership in the eyes of his crew members. The crew relies on their leader to be honest with them when it comes to situations such as these. They expect Odysseus to make decisions for the well being of the crew. When Odysseus receives advice, even if it is helpful he tends to ignore it. He thinks he is the most intelligent human being, even more so than the gods. A prime example of this is when Odysseus receives advice from Kirke about Scylla. Kirke tells Odysseus not to fight Scylla, yet he chooses to anyway. Another example of Odysseus’s ignorance toward people is when Eurylochus tells him not to go onto Kirke’s island because he knows the crew would be turned into swine. Odysseus again chooses to ignore the intelligent advice given by the gods, and finds out that hard way that Eurylochus was correct. After all that Odysseus has done to the crew, it is true to

One quality that establishes Odysseus’s leadership is that his men trust and believes in him. This is demonstrated when Telemachus stands watching as his father take a beating from Antinous, but as his father had wished, he keeps his feelings internalized, “Telemachus, after the blow his father bore, sat still without a tear, though his heart felt the blow. Slowly he shook his head from side to side, containing murderous thoughts” (ln 1053-1057). Had Odysseus been a bad leader, his reputation among his servants would have been bad. If the family servants think of Odysseus in a negative way, they would have told stories to Telemachus about Odysseus’s infamy. As a result, when Odysseus finally comes home to Ithaca and informs his son about his plot for revenge, Telemachus would possibly not have followed his father’s instructions due to doubt and mistrust. However, Telemachus obeys his father’s wishes because of the good things he has heard from his mother and servants. Moreover, while being eaten by Scylla’s heads, Odysseus’s men cries out for help, “Voices came down to me in anguish, calling my name for the last time” (ln 650-651). Since Odysseus’s men cried out to Odysseus for help, it shows that they rely on Odysseus. If Odysseus was a poor leader, his men would have accepted their

Throughout The Odyssey, Odysseus has shown various qualities of a weak leader. For one, Odysseus taunts Polyphemus unnecessarily. This leads him and his men being “cursed” to never return home or to kill all of Odysseus’s men. This shows Odysseus is a bad leader because he is excessively prideful and egotistical. He often lets those traits make decisions for him, and this causes poor fortune for him and his men. Another example of Odysseus being a bad leader is when he accepts the fate of his men instead of trying to find a loophole that would save them. Along with his crew’s fate, his decision to listen to the sirens was also a foolish decision. There could have been a lot of time saved if his men were not preoccupied with keeping Odysseus

Odysseus does not tell his men many things and he keeps those secrets to himself. In one example of the Odyssey, Odysseus is given a gift from the god of the winds, Aiolos. The gift, a bag of winds, takes all the stormy winds and conceals them inside a cowskin bag. Odysseus’ crew, curious about what is in the bag, decides to open the bag and check what is inside. Thinking that there is gold and silver inside, they greedily open it emanating a windy gale. Odysseus describes the opening of the bag saying, ‘“A scandalous motion, but it was passed. They opened the bag, the winds leaped out; at once a gale caught them, and carried them off to sea tearing their hair as they left their native land behind.”’ (Homer 113). A very scandalous motion indeed for the island of Ithaca was visible to Odysseus and his me. Odysseus is punished for his poor leadership. He does not tell his crew that there are the stormy winds inside the bag, leaving his crew inquisitive. Odysseus also, “fell into a deep sleep…”(Homer 112) which gives the crew freedom because there is no supervision. This flaw gave Odysseus the wisdom of responsibility. Odysseus acts as the leader and tells his men what to do. Unfortunately, Odysseus’s men still disobey him on Thrinacia. The men take all of Helios’ cattle and they feast on them although Odysseus had already warned the men. Odysseus, having learned from poor leadership, said, “My friends, we have food and drink in the ship, so we must keep our hands off these cattle or we may suffer for it.” (Homer 144). Odysseus learns but his crew does not gain any wisdom. Odysseus tries to take leadership by warning his crew but they were all too greedy. Under the circumstances, Helios called upon Zeus and terror struck upon Odysseus men leaving only Odysseus alive. Odysseus gains the wisdom of responsibility after learning from his flaw of poor

Throughout Homer’s The Odyssey the main character of the story is regarded as a great hero. Although he is a great hero that does not mean he is an effective leader, here is evidence that Odysseus is not an effective leader for reasons such as recklessness, deceitfulness and a curse from the gods.

For undertaking this dangerous task to save others and opposing great obstacles, Odysseus is given respect from his crewmates. In addition, Odysseus is clever in his encounter with Scylla and Charybdis, and although guilt-ridden, later reflects thinking, “But as I sent them on toward Scylla, I told them nothing, as they could do nothing” (783-784). The decision to not tell his men was difficult for Odysseus, but he could not let his crew persuade him to sail back, otherwise they would never reach Ithaca. Using his cleverness, he had to think of the greater good. The decision to choose which monster would be in his best interest to encounter was also difficult for him.

When it comes to a strong leader, Odysseus is not the best option. Not only did Odysseus fail to save any of his men, but his selfishness caused him and his crew to go on this journey in the first place. If Odysseus had not given his identity to the Polyphemus, then Polyphemus would not have told Poseidon to make Odysseus’ life miserable. This shows that he has poor leadership skills because an exceptional leader would have saved their crew rather than doom them. Another example of Odysseus’ lack of leadership skills is the fact that he did not have to be tied to the mass, he just wanted to hear the sirens song. Tiresias told Odysseus to make sure that he and his crew plugged their ears with wax when they were passing the sirens. Then out of

Odysseus is a good leader because he is wise. Throughout the story, Odysseus's wise decisions help him and most of his comrades escape death. While Odysseus is trapped in a cave with his men and a man-eating cyclops, When Odysseus is asked his name by the cyclops, Odysseus says “Nobody -- that's my name” (IX. 413). Later on, this proves to be a wise decision because the cyclops cannot identify who attacked him. This decision by Odysseus saved him and his men from imminent death.

He orders his other men to “…stay here while I go / With my ship and crew on reconnaissance.” (9.167-168), and when he arrived on the island, he “…ordered part of my crew to stay with the ship / And counted off the twelve best to go with me” (9.186-187). Thus, he exhibits good leadership capabilities by investigating the potential danger with only a small subset of his men before exposing all of his men to this danger, even heading both of these missions himself. Odysseus also takes with him a number of provisions, possibly to act as gifts for whoever they might encounter. He exhibits foresight by preparing the best way he can, and even thinking ahead of how to meet xeinia, good traits in a leader. However, this example of good xeinia is then contrasted with his arrival to the cave, later discovered to belong to Polyphemus. Odysseus and his men enter and partake of the food in the cave without being invited, breaking the code of xeinia. Even as Odysseus prevents his men from stealing the goods in the cave of the Cyclops, he continues to behave as a poor guest, and a violator of xeinia, by expecting to receive “…the gifts that are due to strangers” (9.260) even after he has broken this code himself. Thus, even as Odysseus respects the code of xeinia by bearing gifts for their would-be host and by preventing his men from

First, Odysseus decides to go to war with the Greeks but even though he does not want to leave his family of a wife and son. But to show that he is a good leader to his men he puts aside his personal desires and unselfishly gives up himself to warfare for his country. That shows loyalty to me so that’s when he earns his men’s respect on this journey especially against a six headed monster named Scylla. But to me his loyalty kept his men by his side even through the face of the dangers against Scylla the six headed monster.

In the first few books Odysseus is seen as a strong, brave, courageous leader, as well as an awesome fighter. I believe the impression of him continues to show throughout Books 6-10. In fact, in Book 9 when he went to explore the land where the Cyclopes lived it took lots of courage to injure the Cyclopes the way he did then and then a great deal of intelligence to strap his men to the underside of the heard, so they could escape. Although he lost have the men he took with him on his exploration half of them did survive because he thought of away to escape. Yes, Odysseus made some bad decisions and got some of his crew killed, but he also made someone good decisions and some of them survived. We all have to make choices and sometimes they

On the coast of Cicones Odysseus manages to get 36 of his followers killed, “My men were mutinous, fools … So doom appeared to us … Six benches were left empty in every ship” (Homer 563). Not only does he fail to lead his men, he manages to insult them as well. If he had been an experienced leader he probably would have been able to save the dead men. Odysseus failure to lead and help is further shown when Homer writes, “While he fought only to save his life … bring his shipmates home … not by will nor valor could he save them” (Homer 561). That statement shows that by the end of their trip, all of Odysseus men were brutally killed or heartlessly abandoned. In the statement it even states did not have the bravery or even want to save his shipmates, his never wavering companions. Both statements show that Odysseus was a horrible, atrocious

The opportunities that Odysseus had in the past indicates, “Odysseus allows his crew to tie him up, and believes that they will let him down, and his only weakness is honesty.” “Odysseus didn’t, just want to go home. He wanted to stop somewhere first, and hear the mermaids sing, before going home, and he wanted to take the long way