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The Leadership Of Odysseus In The Odyssey By Homer

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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.
To begin, Odysseus ended up completing his journey but by the time he had gotten home all of his men were dead. In many different situations and places he lost a lot of men at a time. For example, in book eight where his adventure with Scylla and Charbybdis took place he had an opportunity …show more content…

For example, in book 8 when he lost 6 of his men he didn't even think to ask them what they should do. There was always that second choice there but he didn’t give them the option. Although he felt bad after it was still something he should've discussed with them as a leader and someone they had trust in. Another example is in book VI. He's given a bag of winds that he's supposed to use and give back. He ends up leaving the bag unattended with his teammates while he sleeps and because of the fact he never told them what was in the bag they got curious and greedy and opened it thinking it would be something of value to them. This caused all of the winds to be released and they all faced the consequences. After this incident Odysseus states that he feels like giving up and throwing himself in the water. This shows that Odysseus lacks the ability to communicate with his men.
On the other hand, Odysseus does take responsibility for his teammates' actions like a good leader should do. For instance, in book IX when all of his men ate Apollo’s forbidden cattle which is one of the most important things that Odysseus had been warned about, he blamed himself for not keeping watch of them and convincing them to have some patience and wait one more day to be able to have the meal that they had been wanting really badly. This shows that Odysseus knows it was partially his fault and that he could've done

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