Odysseus As A True Leader In Homer's Odyssey

Douglas MacArthur once said “A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others,” His saying points out that in order to be a true leader, they shall be confident and independent as well as courageous through difficult decisions and open-minded. In the epic poem, The Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus shows all of these traits during his journey returning home to Ithaca after the Trojan War. Odysseus as a human makes foolish mistakes, many important choices are made during his trip to Ithaca, he truly is longing for his return home and does whatever it takes whether it is good or bad. Odysseus shows elements of good leadership throughout book IX. In the beginning,

At one point of his journey home, Odysseus and his crew finally end up in an island named Lotus-eater. The men are desperately tired and the natives gave them a Lotus fruit. Accentually, a Lotus is a non esculent intoxicated fruit, when consumed all memories are forgotten and erased, making them want the fruit even more. Once Odysseus saw what has happened to his crew he “brought them back, back to the hollowships and streaming tears, I forced them, hauled them under the rowing benches, lashed them fast and shouted out commands to my others, steady comrades”(Homer IX, 110-113). Odysseus, who has been sailing wild waves for nine days, is obviously tired but when he was inundated with news, he took all of his power to help his men. Odysseus is proving that he is an excellent leader; he gathered up all of his mates and took control of the horrible situation. If Odysseus did not show apathy for his men he would have lost a lot of his men focusing on the main goal, to get back home. In addition, of how Odysseus shows great qualities of being a leader is like when he shows he is also slick and cunning. For instance, Odysseus and his men also end up in

Odysseus is still sailing the untamed waters coming across an abutment amount of islands. To begin with, they stumble across an island of Aceaean home of Circe. Odysseus suddenly sees smoke coming from inland, but he intended to abstain himself from going for he did not want to make the same mistake as before. He then sends out twenty two of his men to explore the smoke instead. They suddenly meet a gorgeous witch named Circe. All of the men were mesmerized and too gullible to fall for Circe but one, Eurylochus. Circe showed great hospitality by feeding starving men, but within seconds of eating, the men turned into pigs. Eurylochus abstained and knew that Circe was not an innocuous person, and due to fear he ran back to tell his leader. Once Odysseus heard the about the great chaos he “… slung the hefty bronze of [Odysseus] silver- studded sword around my shoulder… ‘Lead me back by the same way you can out’” (Homer X, 287-290). Odysseus being the intrepid person he is, shows determination to get his men back from the wicked witch. He is showing that he is a benign leader who cares for the health of his men, but at the same time he shows no sign of fear of Circe and is confident he can get twenty two men back. Eurylochus beseech and admonishes Odysseus to flee and leave his men with Circe, but Odysseus refused to leave without his other men. While on his way to