Throughout the story of The Odyssey Odysseus makes many questionable decisions that affect more than just himself. Whether that be, being selfish, or simply withholding essential information from his crew, he seems to choose wrong almost every time. Odysseus is an extremely flawed character who makes his journey home much harder than it has to be, his poor judgment extends his treacherous journey back to Ithaca immensely. One of his most flawed decisions is when he didn't tell his crew what was in the bag from Aeolus and ended up elongating their journey home by years.
On Aeolia, Odysseus was given a bag of winds to help him and his crew return home to Ithaca at a quicker pace. I do not support Odysseus' thought to not tell his crew what the bag from Aeolus contained. The shipmates talked among one another about the bag and said, “‘We shared the journey...yet we come back home with empty hands…we should look in the bag’”(Wilson). They suspected that Odysseus was given a fortune of gold and silver and decided to open the bag. Opening the bag containing the west winds forced them back to Aeolus’ island. If Odysseus had thought to share some basic knowledge of what was in the bag with his crew they could have returned home much quicker and would have avoided losing many members of
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It’s even revealed that the men feel overworked and tired under his leadership, this is shown when Eurylochus said, “‘You are unfair to us...we men have had no rest or sleep and you refuse to let us disembark’”(Wilson). The one instance when the shipmates might be considered untrustworthy is when they eat the cattle of Helios after being told not to or else they will perish. The crew choose to eat meat and seek forgiveness instead of facing a lonely death at sea, demonstrating kleos, not necessarily