Odysseus Leadership Qualities

Odysseus’s actions may seem selfless and/or heroic however they are actually being mistaken for acts of selfishness. “They tied me up, then, plumb amidships, back to the mast, lashed to the mast and took themselves again to rowing” (Homer 1134). Homer is describing the crew lashing Odysseus to the mast so that he may hear the sirens sing. Odysseus thinks he is being heroic and manly, but he is actually placing his life and that of the crews in danger all because he wants to hear the song of the sirens. Odysseus knows how loyal his crew is to him so, if one of them was to untie him they could have all ended up dead. Odysseus might think he was performing a heroic action but in actuality he was performing an act of selfishness. When Circe captured Odysseus’s men he was advised not to save them by his best man, Eurylochus, however “Against this advice, Odysseus rushes to save his men from the enchantress” (Homer 1125). Odysseus appears to be heroic but looking closer this rash decision was selfish. He rushed to save his men for honor. He cares more about honor than the safety of his crew. The rest of his crew that wasn’t under Circes spell would have been lost if Odysseus died because they rely so heavily on him. When a leader mistakes his selfish decisions as heroic it can place him and the people around him in danger. Odysseus’s inability to think through his rash decisions and recognize the right choice over the honorable and selfish one makes him unfit to be a

Odysseus’s desire is shown by his use of first-person narrating, claiming, “There I sacked the city,/killed the men, but as for the wives and plunder,/that rich haul we dragged away from the place—/we shared it round so no one, not on my account,/would go deprived of his fair share of spoils” (9. 45-49). Odysseus holds him and his men accountable for the sharing of the sacking, killing, and presumably raping of the loot and Cicones. Right after this raid and assault, Odysseus tells his men to leave, but they resist, and pay the price of their lives for their mistake: “Then I urged them to cut and run, set sail,/but would they listen? Not those mutinous fools;/there was too much wine to swill,/too many sheep to slaughter…the Cicones broke our lines and beat us down at last./Out of each ship, six men-at-arms were killed” (9. 50-52, 68-69). Odysseus understands what will become of him and his crewmembers if they stay too long and relish too much in what wasn’t

Although Odysseus is the captain of a fleet, he initially takes no responsibility for the welfare of his crew. When exploring unknown lands, he often “sent out two picked men and a runner to learn what race of men that land sustained.” *(147) The king delegates the task solely to fulfill his own curiosity, without consideration of any dangers his men might face, such as intoxication in the land of the Lotus Eaters and cannibalism in the land of the Laistrygonians. Due to his indiscretion, Odysseus puts his men in unnecessary peril.

Odysseus had to maintain his ship and his ship mates as he continued to try and travel back to his reality while all of his men starved, but he couldn't help them, all he could do was keep try to get home which is what he did. They both strived to make the lives of others better than their own.

After reading about Odysseus in the first part of The Odyssey he may seem like a good leader. Nobody had thought that deeper in the epic Odysseus’ actions made him turn out to be a bad leader. Homer’s epic The Odyssey is about how Odysseus and his men are journeying back home to Ithaca from the Trojan War. He encountered many obstacles along his journey that cost him the lives of his men. Odysseus faced atrocious monsters, foxy nymphs, and gods out for revenge. The journey that he completed tested his skills not only as leader, but as a human too. Odysseus proves himself to be a bad leader due to him being deceitful, oppressive, and dramatic.

Without a second thought Odysseus rushes to rescue his men, not caring about the danger, even after Eurylochus begs him to leave the island. The quote reads,” Eurylochus tells Odysseus what has happened and begs him to sail away from Circe's’ island. Against this advice, however, Odysseus rushes to save his men from the enchantress.”(Page: 1225, Lines 46-48) Bravery shines through this act of loyalty, by Odysseus putting his own life at risk to save others. The abundant amount of mental strength that it took for him to do this, really proves how loyal of a person Odysseus

In the story “The Odyssey”, by Homer, Odysseus improves his leadership abilities from not caring about his men and being selfish to thinking for his men’s lives before his own. First, during Odysseus’ visit to the Cyclops' Cave, Odysseus wants to stay to fill his desire to “see the caveman” but because of this, many of Odysseus’ men end up being killed by the Cyclops (Homer 958). Therefore, Odysseus is selfish and thinks of his personal desire to see the cyclops over his men’s lives. A good leader would have thought about his men first and left the Cyclops’ Cave as soon as possible. Odysseus’ poor leadership is on the reasons that his journey is difficult.

The qualities of a good leader vary from person to person, but there are multiple characteristics that are given. One important trait is being able to make the right decision at the right time. At this, Odysseus is more effective and that makes him a far better leader than Everett in ‘O’brother Where Art Thou’.

A good leader as mentioned before is someone who is willing to make sacrifices for those he leads. There is much evidence of Odysseus putting his life first at the cost of the lives of men in his crew. A good example of this is when Odysseus is told, “No ship of men has ever approached and slipped past, always some disaster-big timbers and sailors’ corpses whirled away by the waves and lethal blasts of fire … on the other side loom two enormous crags … [Scylla] with each of her six heads she snatches up a man from the dark-prowed craft and whisks him off.” He makes a hard decision and chooses that sacrificing six men is better than the death of all his men. But rather than offer himself to Scylla or warn his men, he decides that he is going to keep quiet and not tell his men, in an effort to save himself.

In Homer’s epic, The Odyssey, Odysseus demonstrates good leadership because of the courage and decisiveness he shows whilst conquering the challenges he faces while attempting to lead his men back to Ithaca.

He does not optate his men to forget their ultimate goal: to get home to Ithaka. However, because the three men were not in their right minds, Odysseus had to go and retrieve them. Odysseus's allegiance to his men is additionally shown through this quote, "She victualed them as they shrieked there, in her den, / in the dire grapple, reaching still for me- / and deathly pity ran me through / at that optical discernment- / far the worst I ever suffered, / questing the passes of the outlandish sea" (Homer 218). As a result of the adhesion and commiseration Odysseus feels for his men, he describes losing his men as one of the worst things he had ever had to suffer through. He had been coerced to visually examine his comrades die, kenning that there was nothing he could do to preserve them. Odysseus's allegiance and devotion to his men would not let him forsake them in their time of need. Odysseus is faithful to his men, but ultimately, his adhesion is to his domicile and family. As Circe verbalizes to Odysseus during his peregrination, "Now give those kine a wide berth, keep your cerebrations / intent upon your course for home, / and hard seafaring brings you all to Ithaka" (Homer 213). She admonishes him that if he does not comply with her orders, then there would be eradication to come for him and his men. Kenning the consequences of killing Helios's cattle, Odysseus is fixated on evading the

Moreover, heroes care about their crew and while they give might give out orders or commands they do not place themselves at a superior level. Odysseus did not have that quality. “True heroism…is not the urge to surpass all others…but the urge to serve others” (Arthur Ashe; American professional tennis player). Instead Odysseus held himself at a high level and tried to seem greater, while instead he should have had turned his crew into a team that works together. He believed that as a leader he could give commands with no explanations and the crew had no right to question them. As when King Aeolus gave him a bag full of unfavorable, stormy winds, rather than explaining to the crew why the bag should not be opened, Odysseus kept the information to himself just ordering the rest of the crew not to touch the bag. This led to trouble for when Odysseus fell asleep “the men open the bag, thinking it contains gold and silver” (Homer; pg.1224). Whereas, if Odysseus did try to be condescending, he would have shared the contents of the bag with the rest of the men and they would have been home many years earlier. Not only did Odysseus not treat his fleet as a team, he also led them into much danger, albeit, a real hero protects his crew. When Odysseus and the men came into the Cyclops cave his men begged to take the cheeses and then “make a run for it/” (Homer; 9. 127). Yet Odysseus refused because he “wished/ to see the caveman,

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 every situation Odysseus and his crew get into, Odysseus never leaves his crew to die but instead goes back and protects it from danger. In The Odyssey, Homer indicates, “ Going forward I carried wax along the line, and laid it thick on their ears”(Hom. Od. 10.115). In this quote Odysseus and his crew were going to sail by an island of sirens who attract men with their voices. Homer explains that Odysseus lays the wax thick on his crew’s ears protecting them from being manipulated by the sirens. Moreover, in the film The Odyssey, Polyphemus traps the crew and Odysseus in his cave. As Polyphemus reaches out to eat a man, Odysseus impedes him and states “Don’t take my men, take me instead”(The Odyssey). The two pieces of evidence explain some of the many ways Odysseus is able to protect his crew. Someone who can protect and care for his or her crew is a good leader because without protection, is someone who doesn’t care about his or her crew which makes them a bad leader, unlike

Any successful leader’s goal is to lead his group, and for Odysseus to allow his men to aimlessly wander around the island, does not illustrate proper leadership. Although Odysseus’s intention is to explore the island first, he should have either gone alone or with a few of his men, which would have portrayed courage and adequate leadership. Additionally, through several of his adventures, Odysseus loses his men one by one, ending up not bringing any of his men home to Ithaka. For example, Helios’s resentment toward Odysseus’s men prompts him to exclaim, “O Father Zeus and gods in bliss forever,/ punish Odysseus’ men!” (XII, 484-485) As stated, the gods punish the men for consuming the cattle, proving how Odysseus is solely not able to guide his men to survival. Also, when the Kyklopes, “laid hands upon a bigger stone/ and wheeled around, titanic for the cast,/ to let it fly in the black-prowed vessel’s track” (IX, 587-589) due to Odysseus’s hubris, a number of ships are destroyed, limiting the space for his crew and providing them with less stable transportation. Instances like the Kyklopes episode, and when Zeus uses his thunderbolt to once again destroy ships, all demonstrate the lacking leadership that Odysseus continues to encompass throughout the epic poem and reasonably can be deemed his fault. Moreover, Odysseus’s leadership is yet