Odysseus A Good Leader

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

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