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An Analysis Of Odysseus In Homer's Odyssey '

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Odysseus In "The Odyssey", Odysseus of Ithaca is put in many difficult situations on his journey. Some people may say that Odysseus was a good leader, they are wrong. I say that Odysseus was a bad leader in the long run, all of his men died because of him and the men were not loyal to Odysseus. Odysseus was selfish and he sometimes had too much pride in himself which got the men and him into trouble. Odysseus was also a clever and cunning man, but he was not a good leader to his men. First, Odysseus and his crew arrived on the island of the cyclops. The cyclops Polyphemus kills and eats a few people of the crew. Also when Odysseus and his crew had to face Scylla and Charybdis, more than seventy percent of the crew was killed. Then directly after their encounters with Scylla and Charybdis they landed on the Island of the sun god, Helios. There, the men disobey Odysseus's warning not to feast on the cattle and then Zeus is forced to send a lightning bolt to destroy their ship only to please Helios. Odysseus is the only survivor now. If he had been a better leader and enforced his rules and been more honest and trusting to his crew then they would have gotten back to Ithaca together and alive. …show more content…

He saved peoples lives, and he took risks for other people and he also showed his soldiers respect. These arguments are invalid though, because in the end Odysseus was the only survivor left out of his entire crew. He saved peoples lives yes, but they would be killed sooner or later. He didn't even care enough about his troops even to trust them. He didn't tell them what was in the bag that Aeolus gave them. And also when facing Scylla and Charybdis, he didn't even tell his crew about the beasts. He just told them to row the boat as quick as they can as they would soon be picked off by the monsters. So for those who think Odysseus was a good leader, they are

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