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Odysseus being shown as a leader
Symbolism of Homer the Odyssey
Odysseus leadership non
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Would you consider Odysseus to be an inept leader or a good leader? In “The Odyssey” by Homer, the main character Odysseus makes decisions as a leader that have a great effect on the lives of his crew.
Odysseus is an inept leader with some good leadership skills, but he can’t control his actions at Helios’s island and with the Cyclops.
Because of Odysseus’s horrible leadership skills, his crew died an unfair way, due to him not telling them about their fates. Odysseus doesn’t mention to his crew about the prophecy that if they eat the cattle, they would die. Teiresias told Odysseus to “Avoid those kine, hold fast your intent, and hard sea bearings bring you all to Ithaca. But, if you raid the beeves, I see destruction for ship and crew.” Once hearing the prophecy, Odysseus finds out that going home isn’t going to be easy. He knows that if his crew eats Helios’ cattle, they won’t survive. As Odysseus “withdrew to the interior to pray the gods in solitude, for hope that one might show me some way of salvation”, he closed
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Odysseus wants to wait and see the Cyclops, which gets them all into trouble. When they arrived at the cave, the Cyclops was nowhere to be seen. Odysseus’s crew “at first... begged [him] to take some cheeses and go”, but he “would not listen, though it would have been best”. Odysseus knows that staying might get them into trouble, but he wants to stay anyways. Once Odysseus and his crew manage to escape, the Cyclops prays to Poseidon. He wants to “grant that Odysseus.. never [gets] to see his home”. Odysseus had revealed himself to the Cyclops, due to his arrogance and pride of having outsmarted the Cyclops. This demonstrates that his arrogance took over him because he gave away his identity. That makes it easier for the Cyclops to come and find him for revenge. Arrogance doesn’t make a person a good leader, it justs gets people into
After they finally escaped from the brutal monster, Odysseus made another poor decision. The men were rowing their boats away from the island when Odysseus decided that it was a good idea to taunt the raging Cyclops: “So, Cyclops,...Your filthy crimes came down on your own head, you shameless cannibal...so Zeus and the other gods have paid you back” (9.531-36)! This angered Polyphemus more, which led him to hurl a mountain top into the water, forcing Odysseus and his men back near the shore. After one time, you’d think Odysseus would have learned his lesson, but he continued to taunt the monster after they had rowed back out: “Cyclops - if any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you...say Odysseus, raider of cities...Laertes’ son who makes his home in Ithaca” (9.558-62)! Not only did Polyphemus acquire the location of his home, he cursed Odysseus, so that if and when he returned home, it would be late, he would be broken, and problems at home would arise, which was why taunting the Cyclops was a horrible decision. In conclusion, one could argue that most of Odysseus’ choices were favorable
...at he has to say. Honestly I think that Odysseus was is a great leader because, he tried his best to keep his crew safe, he never gave up on them; even if they were in a bad situation.
Throughout the whole book he is having his men go and do crazy things that make them risk, and some even lose, their lives. After Odysseus offends Poseidon by harming the cyclops he started taunting the cyclops. One of his men scream, “God Sake Captain! Why bait the beast again? Let him alone!” (493-494). This is showing that he was “baiting the beast” again and putting his men in even more danger after he just saved his life and all of theirs. Odysseus also puts his men in danger by not telling them about Scylla. He doesn’t tell his men that six of them are going to die. Odysseus says, “Voices came down on me in distinguish, calling my name for the last time,” ((820-821). This is showing that Odysseus just put his men in even more danger plus he isn’t fighting for his men. Odysseus was such a bad leader to his
When Odysseus visits the land of the dead in book 11 to consult the dead seer Teiresias, Teiresias gives him several pieces of advice. One main thing he tells Odysseus is, “If only you have the strength and will to control your men’s appetites. And your own from the moment when your good ship leaves the deep blue sea and approaches the isle of Thrinacie. There you will find at their pasture the cattle and the fat flocks of the Sun-god, whose eyes and ears miss nothing in the world. If you leave them untouched and fix your mind on returning home, there is some chance that all of you may yet return to Ithaca, though not without suffering. But if you hurt them I predict that your ship and company will be destroyed, and if you yourself contrive to escape, you will reach home late, in a wretched state, upon a foreign ship, having lost all of your comrades.” (Homer, The Odyssey, 143) When Odysseus and his men land on the island of Thrinacie, Odysseus warns his crew not to butcher any of the cattle they see. However, his men do not follow Odysseus’s advice and butcher several cattle out of hunger. As a result, when Odysseus and his crew finally leave the island, Zeus blasts their ship with a lightning bolt (as revenge for Helios/the Sun-god) causing every man to perish with the exception of Odysseus. In short, Teiresias gives advice to Odysseus to not butcher any of
So Eurylochus urged Odysseus to stop over on land so they that they may rest. And Odysseus gives the order for his crew if they, “come on a herd of cattle or fine flock of sheep, not one man among us- will slaughter an ax or ram’ (Fagles 280). And they all promised they wouldn’t hurt any cattle. While on this land for a whole month because of the wind, Odysseus fell asleep, and that is when Eurylochus “opened up his fatal plan to friends” (Fagles 281). Since the food was running out on ship and they were growing hungry, Eurylochus proposed to slaughter the cattle for food, and the shipmates went along with this act. When Odysseus awoke he was angry and blamed Zeus for giving him sleep that “lulled him into disaster’ (Fagles
The reason for this is because his pride gets the best of him. Another reason is he does not listen to the advice he is given. Some may think that he is admirable because he’s saved his men, but they are wrong because he has also puts his needs before theirs constantly and this results in situations that endanger the lives of his men. All these traits go against what a hero is and prevents him from being a good leader, or person in general. A hero does not have to be perfect, but Odysseus’ enormous flaws make him far from the hero he could
Odysseus is a Foolish and selfish leader, who makes rash decisions that kill his men just for his own personal gain.
So Odysseus blames everyone for the bad thing that happen to him, like when he was praying to the gods that the gods offer him sleep and then he overslept, and then blames the gods for not waking him up. When he was in the court and he said to the court that he is only using his men for his dirty work. So that tells us he doesn’t really care about anyone expect his wife and his kid. So, in the real world the leader takes care of his crew and makes sure he makes all the right moves so his crew does not die.
He and his men found a way to escape by blinding the Cyclops and exiting by holding on to the sheep’s bellies. They all started to celebrate, but Odysseus started to mock the Cyclops instead. His crew started advising him stop and one of them said, “God Sake, Captain! Why bait the beast again? Let him alone!” (page 383, 408). Later on, the Cyclops prayed to Poseidon and cursed him to “lose all his companions” along the way. If Odysseus had followed hs men’s advice, then he wouldn’t have been cursed to reach Ithaca by
In that regard, it was no wonder Odysseus’s is such an atrocious leader. A great example of Odysseus being disloyal is on Calypso’s Island. “…He lay with her each night, for she compelled him.” (892) This quote shows how Odysseus is disloyal to his grieving wife, and sleeps with a goddess daily. A leader cannot expect loyalty when the leader is notorious for being unloyal. “Now Circe, ‘loveliest of all immortals,’ persuades Odysseus to stay with her.” (903) This is another quote that shows Odysseus cheating on his wife, while his wife is at home is at home distraught over her missing husband. A great leader leads by example. By that philosophy, it should not be expected of Odysseus’s men to be loyal to him, when Odysseus cannot stay faithful to his own wife. Consequently, Odysseus is also extremely selfish, on top of being incredibly
Odysseus lets himself and his men get trapped in a Cyclops’ cave where a number of men die (153, 312-316) Generally a true leader never allows his men to die for foolish and or unnecessary reasons. In this part of the text Odysseus allows his men to get trapped in a cave because he wants to wait to meet the owner of the cave which he was in. Hence, Odysseus is an awful leader due to the fact that he allows his men to die due to his own irresponsibility. Another similar instance is when he expects hospitality from the Lasitrygonês without even a shred of doubt that they would treat him well - even after making the same mistake with the cyclops’ earlier, both leading to the loss of many lives (168, 121-128). A great leader never lets men die due to their own error. In this case, Odysseus has entire benches worth of men die due to the fact that he did not learn from his earlier encounter with the cyclops. Thus, Odysseus is not as awe inspiring a leader as some may make him out to
Odysseus was within arms reach of home but because of how naive he was he was forced to keep going on his journey. After all of Aeolus’ hospitality and such a powerful gift Odysseus is still mindless at what this meant and because of him not being cautious, he could not complete his adventure. It’s surprising knowing that after being on a powerful god’s bad side and being forced back to sea, that Odysseus can be even more of a fool.
Odysseus wouldn’t of taken ten years after the Trojan war to get home if it wasn’t for his prideful trait. Pride causes Odysseus suffering all throughout the book. For example, once Odysseus was on his way off the island of the Cyclops, the epic says “I would not heed them in my glorying spirit, but let my anger flare and yelled: “Cyclops, if ever mortal man inquire how you were put to shame and blinded, tell him Odysseus, raider of cities, took your eye: Laertes son, whose home’s on Ithaca.” After Odysseus and his men escape Cyclopes island, Odysseus pride kicks in and he tells off the Cyclop that he blinded. Telling the Cyclop his real identity, and his business. The Cyclop prayed to his father Poseidon (sea god), which Poseidon is still upset and still hold a grudge towards Odysseus, because Odysseus did not thank the gods after he won the Trojan war, and because of his pride, he said he did it all on his own. This would only cause more trouble for Odysseus and his journey home to extend
Picture this: a hero of great legends who travels to the underworld and back to get directions to his home from a blind prophet. It sounds like quite an impossible journey, but that is exactly what makes Odysseus all the more fascinating. The Odyssey, an epic poem orally transmitted by Homer, a Greek poet who wrote The Iliad, had to contain some variety of attributes that Greeks valued in a person. That one embodiment of what the Greeks found intriguing in a character is Odysseus. Odysseus is known as what is called an epic hero. An epic hero is a protagonist of a story that represents the most important attributes of a civilization. Odysseus, being based in ancient Greece, is the embodiment of intelligence, loyalty, and strength.
While facing an unknown and foreign land, Odysseus does not take the risk of losing his men and is cautious as possible by sending the least of the men he could and a runner in case of an emergency to avoid the loss of his men, a cautious and well thought moved, and after the absence of his men, in fear of losing more men and in loyalty to his men, he retrieves them himself, taking any step necessary to avoid the occurrence of an additional problem. After escaping the Cyclops’ cave, Odysseus and his men were heading to seas when Odysseus reveals his real identity and starts taunting the Cyclops (760-770). While being at the bosom of safety, and out of the reach of the Cyclops, Odysseus puts his crew in danger by angering the Cyclops which results in the Cyclops throwing a very large rock at them and then cursing him and his men after understanding the true identity of the clever man. In this situation, Odysseus does not take into consideration, the future consequences of angering the Cyclops and revealing his identity, showing his incautious decisions and leadership imperfections as he did not think of the consequences of his actions. As a leader Odysseus is tasked to be as cautious as possible to preclude putting his crew in danger, and while he is cautious in some situations, he shows parts of his incautious nature in other situations showing attributes of an imperfect leader.