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Odysseus As A Good Leader In Homer's Odyssey

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In the Odyssey, Odysseus incited the story. Even though he lost his men in the end, he brought out the most important things in them: never give up. However, besides being a good leader, Odysseus made some bad choices in The Odyssey, and sometimes didn’t look like a good leader. Three areas/incidents where Odysseus was a poor leader was his extreme hubris, at the battle of Troy, and when he encounters Polyphemus. First off, Odysseus threw himself and his crew into bedlam with his hubris. For example, Odysseus didn’t tell his crew the bag he receive from Aeolus, which was full of east, south, and west winds. Figuring it was treasure, they opened it and discovered the complete opposite. About to reach Ithaca, the boat was thrown miles away …show more content…

If he’d told his crew of what the bag was full of, his journey home would’ve stopped right there. In addition, Odysseus journey of hardship begins. He winds up at Circe’s island, and this delays everything. He stays there with her, while meanwhile he’s eager to be home with Penelope. Next, Odysseus lost his passion to reach home. When on Circe’s island, he and his crew relaxed for a year there. “And there we sat at ease, day in, day out, till a year had run its course, feasting on sides of meat and drafts of heady wine … but then, when the year was gone and the seasons wheeled by and the months waned and the long days came round again, my loyal comrades took me aside and prodded ‘Captain this is madness! High time you thought of your own home at last, if it really is your fate …show more content…

First off, when Odysseus spears the Polyphemus through the eye, he shouts his name at him and boasts that he was the one who just did it. He not only reveals his name, but also his father’s and his home. Due to this, Poseidon delays his trip by 10 years, and kills his entire crew near the ending of the story. Secondly, Odysseus probably didn’t have to stab Polyphemus’s eye. If he spared him, things would’ve been a lot more calmer and better. Poseidon wouldn’t have killed all of his men, and they probably could’ve helped Odysseus a lot more. In the end, Odysseus didn’t show his leadership with Polyphemus. He not only revealed his name to the cyclops, but his father’s and his home. These were poor

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Namely, he is arrogant, and doesn’t trust his crew with information. This is evidenced as he “[calls stinging taunts] back to the cyclops” that he had just blinded and escaped from (Homer 9:530). Odysseus has already escaped the danger, but instead of staying away from it, he angers the cyclops putting himself and his crew in danger once more. This portrays his arrogance due to the fact that Odysseus feels the need to show his superiority over his enemies, even when he clearly is not superior. Odysseus also has poor leadership skills in the fact that he doesn’t trust his crew.

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On his journey home, Odysseus have made multiple mistakes that he usually doesn’t make. One example is in the Odyssey when Odysseus shouted at Polyphemus while he was throwing the rocks, “Cyclops— if any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shamed you so—say Odysseus, raider of cities, he gouged out your eye, Laertes’ son who makes his home in Ithaca!”(Odyssey, 152). I believe the Odysseus in the past would have kept his pride in and be quiet, not because of Polyphemus’s father, but for his crew and him to escape safely without constantly getting thrown with giant boulders, capable of crushing ships in one blow, missing inches away from them. Why would you keep screaming at an opponent that can accurately throw life threatening boulders at you? Clearly, Odysseus was not in his right mind and was just letting everything out.

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Again, he is tricking the Cyclops and thinking ahead. This time, instead of preventing the ship from being damaged, Odysseus stops other Cyclops from trying to help Polyphemus. His intelligence allows him and his men to

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Odysseus in the book The Odyssey by Homer is a bad leader due to the lack of attentiveness he shows towards his teammates in many different ways. For example, Odysseus’s goal was to get him and all of his teammates home but by the time he got home all of his teammates had died. Odysseus also failed to communicate with his teammates many times. As well as the fact that Odysseus was also very easy to convince and that led to a lot of lost time in their journey.

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Webster Dictionary defines leadership as simply, “providing direction or guidance,” but to be a successful leader one must focus on completing a goal in a way that is beneficial for the majority, not only the one in charge. This can be achieved by utilitarianism, which is doing of what is best for the most number of people, and carrying out actions that lead to positive effects, instead of merely being done with good intentions. In The Odyssey, Odysseus is not an exemplary leader because he went against utilitarianism by not being honest with his men, letting his arrogance control his behavior, and by killing many people in his house without a fair trial. Firstly, a leader must be truthful with those he works with in order for no errors or confusion to occur as a result of information being hidden. In The Odyssey, not being truthful lead to negative consequences for everyone on Odysseus’ ship, and thus contradicted the principle of utilitarianism stating that actions must lead to positive effects.

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In Odyssey, Odysseus fails to be a great leader because of his selfishness and how he endangers his men. Odysseus is selfish because he doesn't care about anyone else. For example, when Odysseus stays with Circe, he gets to stay in a massive palace while his men sleep outside. Another example is that he is careless

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The Odyssey There is a big difference between leader and great leader. To be a leader you just have to tell people what to do. To be a great leader, you have to tell them what to do, do something, help them, and do everything you can to save them. Which is exactly what Odysseus did in The Odyssey. He did everything he could to keep his men alive, but it was their own fault that they died.

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In Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus repeatedly shows that he is polytropos, for as Zeus says “There is no mortal half so wise”(3). Using his wits, Odysseus gets him and his men out of several sticky situations in the Odyssey, proving his leadership through his actions that save the lives of his crew member. On the other hand Odysseus’ streak of constantly outsmarting challenges, goes to his head, and unfortunately causes Odysseus to develop a hubris. His pride at times makes him arrogant, believing that he always knows best, which leads to the untimely demise of his crew. While Odysseus proves to be good leader by saving his crew from trouble with his wits, he is ultimately a bad leader because he refuses to listen to advice.

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The question of whether or not Odysseus, the main character in Homer’s The Odyssey, is a good leader is very difficult to answer; however, it seems as though the bad things he did trumped the good things he did, resulting in him being classified as a weak leader. Countless times in this epic, Odysseus is very arrogant and cocky, which puts his men’s lives in danger more times than not. For example, when they entered the cave of Polyphemus the cyclops, the majority of his men wanted to leave so they wouldn’t get eaten. Odysseus, however, decides to test Polyphemus’ hospitality, ultimately resulting in 6 deaths.

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It was very risky because Polyphemus could have stopped any one of them, and they would have been goners. However, Odysseus wanted to keep himself the most protected. He thinks with the most logic, of course the leader would need to be the most protected. How else would a crew be guided through their treacherous journey? Afterwards, when he and his crew were sailing, he led his men right towards Scylla, who they did not know was there.

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In order to be defined as a leader, one must be loyal, decisive and able to take the initiative. According to this definition, Odysseus does not fit the profile of a leader. For example, he is loyal to neither his wife nor crew. When Odysseus visited Circe, he disregarded his marriage to Penelope. By engaging in intercourse, he violated the trust of his wife while she remained loyal, despite the urges from the suitors.

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Odysseus has not used their sacrifices to preserve the rest alive. He only uses his crew for his own agenda. And finally he is overall not a smart leader as seen as how he angered his father Poseidon the god of the sea. These are all objectively bad things about Odysseus who is supposedly a great and morally battling leader. Overall if the story is trying to win the battle between right and wrong, then Odysseus lost that battle in the

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Polyphemus and Poseidon’s relationship is not loving or respectful. Polyphemus doesn’t see Poseidon as a father, and he yells at him to give Odysseus a rough time at sea. Poseidon seems to love Polyphemus, but the relationship is not equally loving. Not many valued characteristics. Odysseus had just blinded Polyphemus and yelled his name at him, and Polyphemus tells Odysseus that he will ask his father to give him a hard time at sea if he does not stay on the island.

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While Odysseus and his crew are slowly moving away from Cyclopes Island, Odysseus tells Polyphemus that he is “Odysseus, Laertes’ son,” whose home “lies on Ithaca” (Homer 459 and 460). Because of his arrogant decision to tell Polyphemus the truth of his origins, he essentially dooms him and his crew. Polyphemus, who is Poseidon's son, asks of his father to punish Odysseus for his arrogance, whom grants his prayer. In cessation, Odysseus’ haughty decision to tell Polyphemus his whereabouts leads to his utter

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Throughout the story “The Odyssey” by Homer Odysseus, the main character counters countless amounts of trouble. As king and leader it is his job to keep his men save and get the job done. Odysseus does whatever it takes to keep his men unharmed, and more importantly, alive. All his crew and him dream about is getting back to their homeland, but first they have to pass the obstacles. Odysseus demonstrates good leadership qualities by doing whatever it takes to get the job done, using his advanced cunning abilities to trick his enemy, and constantly saving his crew from dangers.

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