Examples Of Leadership In The Odyssey

Built-in qualities such as intelligence, good looks, height and so on are not necessary to become a good leader. Anyone can cultivate the proper leadership qualities. In order to excel in their leadership a good leader must possess qualities such as self awareness, courage, confidence, innovation, fairness, openness, and dedication among others. Odysseus in The Odyssey, and Samuel, Saul and David in the Books of Samuel, display these characters. However, at some occasions they fail to do so. That is to say, leaders, being it great or small, chosen by God or people, are not completely perfect.

Odysseus is the leader of his men and it is his job to return them home safely. They look up to Odysseus and follow him, whether they believe he has made the right or wrong decision. When Odysseus and his men are stuck with the cyclops it is Odysseus that comes up with the plan to save them. Odysseus is smart and is favored by Athena and as such, Athena helps him devise a plan. One time when Odysseus’ men do not seek his advice they make a mistake and it costs them on their journey. “While Odysseus is sleeping the men open the bag, thinking it contains gold and silver. The bad winds thus escape and blow the ships back to Aeolus’ island.” “Book Ten, Page 916.” The quote shows that the men need Odysseus there to help them and that without him Odysseus men make stupid decisions. Because the men opened the bag Aeolus did not help them again, he believed that their voyage was cursed.

Lauren Waldstein 26 March 2024 Determination of Odysseus and his Crew’s Fates When Odysseus retells his wanderings in the Odyssey, the fates of his crew are often a focal point. All of his men perished at different points in their voyage, leaving Odysseus as the sole survivor to recount the tale. Much of their deaths prompted questioning on what led to that result. Because Homer’s works often depict the gods tending to involve themselves in human affairs, it is arguable that they predetermined the crew to die on their voyage home. However, I believe Odysseus’ blindness and his crew’s disloyalty created the situations that caused their deaths.

His companions urge him to “make away” with the contents they found in the cyclops’s cave and go back to their ship (Homer 9.253). In spite of that, Odysseus does not “give way” as he expects to receive xenia and “gifts” from the host (9.253, 258). He does not acknowledge his crew’s opinions on being safe and escaping the cyclops’s island. He considers his solution the most proper and does not recognise his companions' perspective. Due to Odysseus’s position as king, he expects to receive gifts and hospitality immediately.

First in the Island of Aeolia Odysseus had many choices that controlled his fate, so how could his ship get blown way off course from Ithaca the first time. When the ship got blown off course was it is fault or the crew's ignorance. The ship was set off course because Odysseus gave them a warning to not open the bag, but in the end Odysseus was ignorant of his crew's suspicion and what the crew would have done because of this suspicion. Odysseus and his crew both had a part in stranding the ship on the other side of the world, but it was Odysseus' fault for being ignorant of others' suspicion. Do not be ignorant and end up like Odysseus because there

Around the 1200 B.C., Odysseus was sailing the Mediterranean Sea for the purpose of reaching home. In his long narrative poem, The Odyssey, Homer conveys how Odysseus desperately wishes to go home to Ithaca. However, he faces brutal treatment and obstacles from several different antagonists, and more obstacles appear when he reaches home. Odysseus came across many external conflicts, which he dealt with intelligence, determination, and loyalty.

In addition, Odysseus was not the only person who made bad decisions. Odysseus’s men, having led to believe Odysseus was hiding treasure, made another one of the worst decisions in this epic. Odysseus’s men thought that the bag of winds he had received from Aeolus was really a bag of treasures that he was saving for himself. Stricken with greed, the men opened the bag of winds which sent them back to Aeolus’s island. If the men would have had trust in Odysseus and believed him, they would never have even thought about opening the bag, and they would have gotten home right then, instead of taking another five years.

Odysseus, king of Ithaca, was probably on of the greatest warriors in the history of Ancient Greece. It is said that the poet, Homer, wrote the story of the Odyssey. In this story, Odysseus and his crew are trying to make their voyage back home to Ithaca after they have fought with the Trojans. During the long journey, Odysseus will show some of his character traits which include his bravery, cleverness, and wisdom that will assist him with the situations he encounters on his journey home.

Odysseus makes some substantial mistakes, thus leading to the failure to his men. Odysseus shows extremely inadequate leadership qualities throughout the story. When Odysseus is on the journey to Ithaka, he neglects to let his crew know how long they will be staying on each island. He also neglects to let them know of the journey that lies ahead. This is very poor leadership in the eyes of his crew members. The crew relies on their leader to be honest with them when it comes to situations such as these. They expect Odysseus to make decisions for the well being of the crew. When Odysseus receives advice, even if it is helpful he tends to ignore it. He thinks he is the most intelligent human being, even more so than the gods. A prime example of this is when Odysseus receives advice from Kirke about Scylla. Kirke tells Odysseus not to fight Scylla, yet he chooses to anyway. Another example of Odysseus’s ignorance toward people is when Eurylochus tells him not to go onto Kirke’s island because he knows the crew would be turned into swine. Odysseus again chooses to ignore the intelligent advice given by the gods, and finds out that hard way that Eurylochus was correct. After all that Odysseus has done to the crew, it is true to

Odysseus, King of Ithaca, and the main character in homer’s The Odyssey, was gone for twenty years before finally returning to his family and his homeland. He struggled through many hardships and lost many loyal companions. The King of Ithaca would not have made it home without the assistance of the Greek gods. Despite all of the help and advice that Odysseus receives from the gods, he is a very brave man because his courage and daring in the cave of the Cyclops, his inability to give up and abandon his men on Circe’s island, and his flawless following of the gods instructions are acts of bravery that is uncommon in most men.

So when the Cicones gather an army from inland to ward off the Greek invaders, Odysseus loses many men and rather than acknowledge his error in judgment, he shifts the blame of the defeat to his crew. Convincing himself that he is not at fault for having been defeated, but rather his selfish crew who refused to leave, he justifies his actions, “Then I urged them to cut and run, set sail, but would they listen? Not those mutinous; there was too much wine to swill, too many sheep to slaughter”(9.50-52). Odysseus knows that if he stays on the island, the Cicones will rally an army and come to kill Odysseus and his men. Despite this, he stays and reassures himself that the major defeat was by Zeus’ hand, “Zeus presented us with disaster us, me and my comrades doomed to suffer”(9.61-62). Homer teaches us that no matter how many great accolades one holds, they are destined to fail if they cannot own up to their mistakes and actions.

In The Odyssey, Odysseus sails from his home island of Ithaca, Greece, to Troy. (modern day Turkey) His army and him defeat Troy with a tactful strategy, then leave for home. On the voyage home, Odysseus makes many mistakes like conceitedly setting up camp in a cyclops cave, sending his men to meet the Lotus Eaters, and disappointing the gods by stealing food from the land of the Cicones. But Odysseus makes up for his mistakes by saving his men from Circe. He also sacrifices his

Throughout The Odyssey, Odysseus has shown various qualities of a weak leader. For one, Odysseus taunts Polyphemus unnecessarily. This leads him and his men being “cursed” to never return home or to kill all of Odysseus’s men. This shows Odysseus is a bad leader because he is excessively prideful and egotistical. He often lets those traits make decisions for him, and this causes poor fortune for him and his men. Another example of Odysseus being a bad leader is when he accepts the fate of his men instead of trying to find a loophole that would save them. Along with his crew’s fate, his decision to listen to the sirens was also a foolish decision. There could have been a lot of time saved if his men were not preoccupied with keeping Odysseus

This shows that Odysseus thought he was very smart and he knew what he was doing so he didn’t tell his men so which result him to go backward and all of the sailing time was wasted. And if Odysseus told his men that he got bag of gift and don’t open then there wouldn’t be this much of trouble. Sometimes you have to trust the people around otherwise you will fail in that situation and maybe even in life. If we don’t trust others then how others going to trust us. Another example from the story is when they are at the island of the Lotus eaters. There Odysseus sends three of his men to see if they find something on the island that can be valuable. And they wouldn’t want to leave so he told the rest of his men that if you “taste the lotus” then you will “lose hope for going home” (Homer 8). This shows that Odysseus knew that the three men wanted to stay but he forced them to leave because he knew or thought that since he wanted to go home then

Odysseus' love for his crewmen is apparent; when his men are turned into swine, Odysseus courageously risks his life to rescue his men from Circe.  Delaying the return by opening the bag of winds, the crew causes Odysseus frustration as he debates whether to "jump overboard and drown or stay among the living and quietly endure" (Homer 10.51-53).  However, he tolerates his crew's "senseless stupidity", and they continue to achieve their common goal, returning to Ithaca. In return, the men respect and trust their "master".  As a leader, Odysseus is not overbearing, but sees himself equal to his men.  Similarly, Ulysses has a close fellowship with his crew.  With his confidant speech, he arouses excitement in his men.  "My mariners, Souls that have toiled and wrought, and thought with me" (Tennyson, Lines 45-46) indicates the crewmen and Ulysses have faced many adventures together.  Ulysses feels most alive when he is "exploring the world" with his crew.  He says, "Come, my friends,...the gulfs will wash us down; and see the great Achilles, whom we knew" (Tennyson, Lines 56, 63-64).  The consistent "we" and "us" shows that the journey will be a team activity in which all will contribute and gain.  The stories of Odysseus and Ulysses show the gratification of a close fellowship in which all work as team.