How Is Odysseus A Bad Leader

The Odyssey Essay Final Draft

Imagine, after fighting in a brutal war for 10 years, it takes you another 10 years to be able to return home to see your family. I will inform you about Odysseus, a bad leader, who sacrificed many men through his selfishness, arrogance, and dishonesty during his journey back home. In Homer The Odyssey, Odysseus is not a great leader because he is selfish. He hides with his men in Cyclops’s cave. This is selfish because his men wanted to leave and go home, but he is curious about the Cyclop instead of his men's safety. That ended up getting some of Odysseus' men killed. As they escaped, however, Odysseus taunt Polyphemus and revealed himself. The Cyclops prayed to his father Poseidon, asking him to curse Odysseus to wander for ten years. A good leader would think about others and not only himself.

When he received the bag of winds from Aeolus his men asked him what was in the bag. Instead of him telling them that it's a bag of winds that would help them get home, he told them that it's a treasure. “what's in the bag captain treasure declared odysseus the best treasure present any host could have given to a weary traveler nobody touch it you hear” (28) His men did not listen and opened to check out the treasure that bag causing a storm that destroyed 11 ships and swept away Odysseus to the island of Laestrygonians. This shows why Odysseus is a bad leader because he needlessly puts his men in danger when he could have told them what was in the bad instead of telling them its treasure. Before Odysseus and his men passed the sirens he told all his men to stuff their ears with wax so only he can hear the sirens “ Therefore pass these Sirens by, and stop your men's ears with wax that none of them may hear”(55). This shows why Odysseus is a bad leader because he knew they were going to pass the sirens and only wanted himself to experience