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Leadership In The Odyssey

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The Odyssey, said to be written by the poet Homer, and translated by numerous people, is an ancient Greek epic poem.The Odyssey centers around the hero Odysseus’s 10 year journey home, after he leaves his wife and newborn son for 10 years while he goes off to fight in the war. Known as the original Hero’s Journey, Odysseus encounters many challenges, tests and obstacles along his way home. He must face great gods and deadly monsters as these obstacles are attempting to prevent him from reaching home. An epic poem is a very long poem. In an epic poem there is an epic hero. The hero like Odysseus is strong, brave, confident and courageous. Though Odysseus is strong, cunning and courageous, he also has flaws such as great pride, love of any attention …show more content…

One of the times he demonstrates his awful leadership is when he and his men land their ship on the Island of the Cicones. When Odysseus is speaking to the king Alcinous, he tells him “ I sacked/the town and killed the men. We took their wives/and shared their riches equally among us.” (Wilson, 43). This does not display any good leadership on Odysseus’s behalf. Because of this many of Odysseus’s men were killed by the enemy for revenge, proving that Odysseus is not a good leader, and it is not smart or good to do, and can cause Odysseus to gain more enemies. Another example of Odysseus’s poor leadership is when he and his men have just narrowly escaped the Cyclops cave. While safely sailing away from danger Odysseus yells “Hey, you, Cyclops! Idiot!/The crew trapped in your cave did not belong/ to some poor weakling. Well, you had it coming!” (Wilson, 477). This is a clear example of how Odysseus was a horrible leader and how his arrogance and pride overcame him causing him to put himself and his men in even more danger. “My taunting made him angrier. He ripped / a rock out of the hill and hurled it at us.” Odysseus recalls when speaking of the experience. (Wilson, 481). Because Odysseus let his pride and hubris get in the way of making smart logical decisions, he threatened the lives of himself and his men when taunting the Cyclops which proves to be terrible

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Odysseus and I have both shown leadership. In the Odyssey he was explaining to his men to tie him to the mast so he would not succumb to the sound of the sirens. Odysseus showed leadership by knowing he had to be available to lead his men, not under the spell of the Siren. Odysseus states “The lovely voices in ardor appealing over the water made me crave to listen, and I tried to say untie me!’ to the crew, jerking my brows; but the bent steady to the oars” (933).

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However, in the Odyssey, Odysseus makes choices that both his crew and the reader find questionable. Although Odysseus has some positive attributes he is a bad leader for the following reasons he keeps secrets from his crew, he falls asleep at inappropriate times and is arrogant to a fault. Odysseus’s

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I didn't think leadership was something I needed to work hard at. I had already arrived”(Modglin 1). If Odysseus had just treated his crew with more respect and worked harder to be selfless he would’ve been the perfect leader, and his crew would have the utmost respect for him as a

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Odysseus is extremely selfish by betraying his crew. His crew believes that Odysseus is trying to help them return home, when he is actually only concerned about himself.

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The Odyssey Essay Imagine being away from your family for 20 years fighting in a war then fighting with monsters. That is what Odysseus had to do. Odysseus is a hero from the epic poem “The Odyssey” by Homer. Along the way Odysseus had several challenges he had to face.

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Odysseus could have been trying to protect his men but because of this, he doesn't have anyone now. The actions of Odysseus had a negative impact on him. A leader should always have smart decision-making and think of others. Odysseus didn't project that here. Odysseus is being self-absorbed here.

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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.

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Odysseus is a good leader in that he uses his wits to get his men out of trouble. As Odysseus and his men prepare to face Kharybdis and Skylla, his men are nervous, so Odysseus reminds them “‘Have we never been in danger before this? More fearsome, is it now, than when the kyklopes penned us in his cave? What power we had! Did I not keep my

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Odysseus’ trait of being risky as a leader overrides the crewman’s idea of quickly leaving. Even though Odysseus survives, many of his crewmates die to the cyclops. This not only makes his crew weaker because they have less men, but it also decreases the crewmates’ trust in Odysseus, harming them as a whole. His idea satisfied his personal desires, but it ended up being harmful to his crew. Odysseus and his men later end up blinding the cyclops and escape his cave.

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When Odysseus commands his men to go back to sea to voyage, he is a good leader because he is telling his men what to do. He is being a leader by protecting his men from the Ciccone 's army by leaving before reinforcements come. For example, when Odysseus and his men are heading to the sirens Odysseus states “you are to tie me up, tight as a splint” (Homer 1005). Odysseus is an admirable leader when he orders his men to tie him up and do not untie him because he is sacrificing himself for the good of his men. He is a leader when he does this because he lets his men not suffer the sirens while he has to.

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Dwight Eisenhower once said, "The supreme quality of leadership is integrity." Odysseus displayed a lack of integrity and poor leadership by not fully communicating all the facts of the situation

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Ultimately Odysseus can be a good leader but behind the scenes, he's not. He may of saved his men multiple times, but also got them killed them due to his neglect. He might be intelligent but really he tolerably manipulated his crew by saying things such as “don’t you want to go back to your home again?”. In closing, throughout the whole story, Odysseus progresses himself and designates many Greek

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Lastly, Odysseus illustrates good leadership through his use of determination. In the Circe episode, Circe persuades Odysseus and his men to stay with her. Homer explains how the

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7-8). As this quote means that he is feared on a large scale for his cunningness and slyness. Odysseus manifests good leadership skills by tricking his enemies to get one step closer to his

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