The Theme of Leadership Portrayed in The Odyssey and the Books of Samuel

Odysseus shows both the epic hero qualities of leadership and wisdom when he and his men are dealing with the Cyclops, Polyphemus. Odysseus shows the epic hero quality of leadership. He shows this when he tells his men not to give up. After heating the spear in the fire, Odysseus, “cheered [his] men along with battle talk to keep their courage up: no quitting now” (325-326). Odysseus confirms his position as the leader by giving a pep talk to his men like teams do before games. By cheering his men on, Odysseus illustrates the epic hero quality of leadership.

Everyone is capable of being affectionate, positive, kind, and caring. But with those qualities comes pride, envy, greed, and wrath. The Odyssey is a myth formed about the absurd journey of the human, Odysseus. As a hero from the Trojan War, his mission was to bring his men back home after ten years of hardship. Little did he know, only half of his expedition was over. Odysseus faced off against the burly Laestrygonians, the atrocious Scylla, and the desperate Calypso. He had many peaks and valleys throughout his journey, solely caused by his positive and negative qualities as a leader. In the story of the “Odyssey,” the hero Odysseus embodies an ineffective and effective leader. Odysseus is strategic in navigating the obstacles he faces, however, he is selfish in his desires, and his ego prompts failure, which demonstrates to the reader the Greek

In The Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus demonstrates three important traits of leadership; creativity, courage, and intelligence. For example, Odysseus displayed creativity in “The Cyclops”. Odysseus used his creativity to save his men from Polyphemus, a terrible cyclops, by coming up with the idea to blind Polyphemus with a stake, to escape his cave. Without careful planning and creative thinking, Odysseus would not have been able to lead his men to safety and they all would have died as prisoners of Polyphemus. Additionally, Odysseus displayed his courage in “The Land of the Dead”.

For example, when Odysseus and his men were to pass the Sirens, Odysseus knew that it was his obligation to listen to their deadly melody. When he tells his men that he “alone should listen to their song”(727), Odysseus is showing his sense of fearlessness. Odyssey knew what could have happened if the ropes that held him down were to rip or if he had put one of his men in that position. In another situation, Odyssey rivals his smart with the cyclopes. He and his men had to find a way out of its cave. He knew that the cyclops was a shepherd and used this to his advantage. The cypopes was eventually going to have to let his herd out of the cave, so Odyssey “convy[s] each man”(427) under a sheep and they all escape the deadly cave. Odyssey’s sense of fearlessness and intelligence help him and his make it out of there

In his work, The Odyssey, Homer presents readers with an amazing leader in Odysseus, accompanied by a less-than-fabulous crew. With this combination, instances of Odysseus not involving his followers exemplify how this failure of leadership on Odysseus’ part only come back to hurt himself. On his way back from Troy, the site of Odysseus’ recent and victorious battle, Odysseus and his crew stop at an island called Aeolia. In hopes of finding a way back home to Ithaca, Odysseus consults the king Aeolus. By the time Odysseus is ready to leave Aeolia, he is given the gift of control over the winds. Even prior to this, Odysseus had been given many gifts from his conquering of Troy. So, without telling his crew what it is, Odysseus loads this new gift from Aeolus onto the ship. But, this makes his crew curious, as Odysseus notes. “As soon as I fell asleep, the men started to talk, saying I was bringing home for myself silver and gold… And they opened the bag. The winds rushed out…” (Homer Book 10 lines 41 - 53). This quote not only shows the lack of cognitive ability for Odysseus’ crew, but also how Odysseus’ failure to inform his crew about

Peter Drucker said, “Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results, not attributes.” Homer proves this point in The Odyssey, which is an epic poem, and the main character is Odysseus. Odysseus is on his way back from the Trojan War and everyone returns back to Ithaca beside him, he is being held against his will, by Calypso, on Ogygia. He soon will be faced with problems that come about all because of himself. Some people like Odysseus are not fit to be a leader because he is arrogant, foolish, and a liar.

First of all, a leader must be willing to put all his men first Odysseus proves he lets his pride endanger his men many times in The Odyssey. One example of Odysseus being prideful when he wants a song to be about him at dinner with Alcinous.. The text states that “In effect, Odysseus is asking for a song about himself”(756) This shows he doesn't want his men to be in that song with himself. Odysseus also shows that he is overly prideful when he declares “Men hold me Formidable for quile in peace and war.”(756)This shows he not a humble leader

A leader can assess a situation and decide what the best plan of action is, comparable to when Odysseus and his crewmates were approaching Scylla and not Charybdis, he thinks to himself, “But as I sent them on toward Scylla, I told them nothing, as they could do nothing. They would have dropped their oars again, in panic, to roll for cover under the decking”(Homer 396). Odysseus exhibits good leadership because if he had led them to fight off Scylla, they would not be able to do anything since they would be panicking, which would lead to everyone’s demise. He also prevented them from interacting with Charybdis, since she would drown everyone, stopping progression to go back to Ithaca. Due to this experience, his crewmates appreciate and trust him a little more, because of his quick thinking which ultimately saved him.

Throughout The Odyssey Odysseus was really confident in himself and his abilities. At times this was a really good thing, like for example, in “The Island of the

In the Lotus Eaters, the strong minded leaders can help the weak minded crew when they got sick when they eat the Lotus and Odysseus saves them. Odysseus told his trustworthy men to go and see what the land has to offer, “Then i sent out two picked men and a runner to learn … what the land sustained”(201). When Odysseus told the men to go and see what the land holds, they do not know what is in store. They don't come back for a while and Odysseus gets worried. Then the crew comes back they are intoxicated from the plants and, “They longed to stay forever…, forgetful of their homeland”(209). If they ate those plants they wanted to stay there forever , eating the plants. And the only way Odysseus could get his men back on the boat was for him

“Leaders instill in their people a hope for success and a belief in themselves. Positive leaders empower people to accomplish their goals.” One of the greatest facets that any person can possess is leadership, the ability to create change for the better. Across the world, many believe Odysseus is one of the most iconic representations of what a hero should be, but the question of whether or not he was a good leader will always be open to interpretation. Every single person in the world has a unique style and strategy in order to efficiently follow through his or her plan and attain his or her set goal. Odysseus’s leadership style and strategy often raise inquiries of whether or not it was effective.

This quality is not easily learned and is one of the key characteristics which separates Odysseus from Mandela and any other great leader. Nelson Mandela was indirectly taught the importance of knowing when to be lead through his tribal king Jongintaba. Mandela noticed that “only after all had spoken did the king begin to speak” which is symbolic of valuing others opinions and taking them into account before sharing your own. This mindset is important because it allows you to consider all options before making a decision which often leads to a more positive outcome. Odysseus struggles with this throughout The Odyssey as he only makes decisions based on his own thoughts and ideas as opposed to taking the ideas of the crew into account.

Though Odysseus was a leader, he also gave people a good attitude to help them succeed in the future. In the book The Odyssey, Odysseus and his men had to make it out of the cyclops cave. When the cyclops ate some of the men Odysseus had to give the rest of the men a good attitude to make it out alive. After doing that, Odysseus gave the Cyclops some wine so he drank it and said,”Give me another; thank you kindly”(906), so Odysseus obeyed him with a good attitude to get out alive. A second example of Odysseus having a good attitude to succeed is when he came back home after being gone for 20 years. He had to see his wife and son who didn’t believe it was him but was eventually able to prove it was him by keeping a good attitude. Once he finally

A leader must be Strong. You can't be afraid or back down when trouble strikes. In 527 Justinian failed to lead Rome to lasting success. The fall of Rome accrued because Justinian wanted to back down multiple times and felt like giving up. “Justinian had considered fleeing during the Nika Rebellion, but his wife, Theodora, urged him to stay” (Textbook pg 303). “Emperor

A great leader is one who can lead his followers to victory and back home, but not all are great. In Homer’s book, The Odyssey, Odysseus leads an army to troy. He faces many monsters in many different places. He faces a lot of setbacks before he finally makes it home twenty years later to his wife and kid. Part of being a leader, is being consistent. Odysseus is anything but that. At time he can make good rational decisions, but he always finds a way to mess up. He is also irresponsible in the way he leaves his whole crew unsupervised. He can leave at the most inconvenient times which come back to haunt him later. In short Odysseus is a poor leader.