Essay On Intelligence In The Odyssey

Leaders come in all shapes and sizes, however, what gives someone the title of a good or bad is decided by the decisions they make and how those decisions affect others. Odysseus led the squadron of soldiers in the trojan horse and is a hero of the Trojan War and the king of Ithaca. Consequently, this gives him experience when it comes acting in difficult situations. This experience should guide him to choose correctly when being put in a tight spot. However, in the Odyssey, Odysseus makes choices that both his crew and the reader find questionable. Although Odysseus has some positive attributes he is a bad leader for the following reasons he keeps secrets from his crew, he falls asleep at inappropriate times and is arrogant to a fault.

The question of whether or not Odysseus, the main character in Homer’s The Odyssey, is a good leader is very difficult to answer; however, it seems as though the bad things he did trumped the good things he did, resulting in him being classified as a weak leader. Countless times in this epic, Odysseus is very arrogant and cocky, which puts his men’s lives in danger more times than not. For example, when they entered the cave of Polyphemus the cyclops, the majority of his men wanted to leave so they wouldn’t get eaten. Odysseus, however, decides to test Polyphemus’ hospitality, ultimately resulting in 6 deaths. He made his decision knowing the danger he was putting his men in, which isn’t something a strong leader would do. Strong leaders should

In the epic The Odyssey, written by Homer, Odysseus can be categorized as a bad leader because he is a bystander to preventable deaths of his crew members and exhibits poor authority amongst his group.

In Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus is an effective leader in chapter twelve. A leader who has too much pride is now showing too much humbleness for what’s important by following all the things he has told to do to save his crew and himself. He does what he is told to do to save his crew and keep them safe. “ But now, fearing death , all eyes fixed on Charybdis now Scylla snatched six men from our hollow ship, the toughest, strongest hands I had, and glancing backwards over the decks, searching or my crew I could see their hands and feet already hoisted, failing, high, higher, over my head, look wailing down at me, comrades riven in agony. Shrieking out my name for one last time” ( XII 265-270). This quote clearly makes us see that Odysseus has

Odysseus highlights leadership many times throughout his journey. For example, in “The Lotus Eaters” episode, Odysseus declared, “I drove them all three wailing, to the ships, tied them down

In the epic story the Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus is returning from the Trojan war, and on his way home he finds many obstacles ahead of him. Odysseus is the ruler of Ithaca and he is trying to return home to his land. Many creatures try and stop him from achieving his goal of returning home, but he and his crew have to push through and get home. Odysseus portrays bravery and courage leading his crew through these tough challenges. Odysseus heroically leads his crew and himself through dangerous obstacles, but also foolishly endangers them during the journey home.

A great leader views the world like he is looking through 3D glasses, always seeing the depth and vibrancy of the possibilities around him. A bad leader is like a cyclops wearing an eyepatch, never able to see his mighty hand in front of his own face. In The Odyssey, Homer illustrates the journey home to Ithaca taken by Odysseus and his men. Unfortunately, Odysseus makes poor choices throughout his travels and his actions often do more harm than good. Two character traits define Odysseus and shape his poor leadership style. The first trait is that he is a very arrogant person and this often puts him and his men in danger. Secondly, Odysseus can be deceitful and not fully communicate the facts of each situation. Odysseus was a weak leader and his lack of vision in not seeing the strength and possibilities in his men combined with his inability to effectively communicate to those around him ultimately led to his failure of not being able to safely deliver his men back to Ithaca.

Odysseus is most definitely very clever in the way he can think through a circumstance and execute a plan or mission. An example showing Odysseus’s cleverness is when he ran into an incident with the Cyclops. In order to save his men safely from the Cyclops, Odysseus gave the Cyclops wine in order to move past it. It was key that Odysseus did this at the right time or else the plan would not have worked properly. The wine made the Cyclops drunk allowing the men to poke out the Cyclops’ eyes. The plan was executed perfectly allowing Odysseus and his men to move past safely out of the Cyclops’ cave. Odysseus also showed how smart he was when the Cyclops asked for Odysseus’s name. He said his name was Norman in order to not reveal his true identity in case there was a future incident with another Cyclops. Looking back to when the Cyclops was getting his eye poked out, another Cyclops was summoned due to the loud shouts from the first one. This showed how clever it was that Odysseus did not reveal his real name because then both Cyclops would

While Odysseus is a little arrogant, he can also be a great leader because he is able to trust his second in command, Eurylochus, and give him more power while he is away. When Odysseus is away from Circe’s island, Odysseus has a change of heart and suddenly wants to go back to Circe’s island to retrieve his crew. Despite this sudden change of heart, he is still wise enough to plan out what he is going to do when he gets to Circe’s Island and how to keep his crew safe

However, examples within the literary narrative of the Odyssey leaves the discussion open with regards to his leadership. Thus, the question of leadership supersedes the topic of Arete. Was Odysseus the ideal leader or did he portray undesirable leadership tendencies? The examples that will presented will illustrate that Odysseus hubris, risk taking prowess, and at times unwillingness to follow instructions often placed his crew in danger as he journeyed Ithaca. Yes, the terribly challenging circumstances in narrative in which the Odysseus finds himself is a challenge of courage and heroism of which very few would willingly volunteer. His ability to remain courageous in the face of brute beast, the actions of gods and demi-goddesses, and in almost impossible natural and supernatural circumstances certainly admirable. However, it is evident that there are circumstances where his hubris leads him to trust his intellect and wit over more reasonable course of action that not only endanger his life, but the life of his entire

Odysseus lives up to the epithet of being wise, which is evident in various actions and decisions made by this character. The author uses this hero to explicate that wisdom is integral in any battle strategy, and that it was a significant attribute of Greek leadership. The inclusion of the god of wisdom, Athene, helps the author further the emphasis on this attribute. Odysseus survives for 20 years outside Ithaca,

There are very few traits of a good leader which Odysseus possesses, and they aren't the most important ones. He is brave

Odysseus lacked leadership skills when they were planning for revenge on the Cicones, from The Odyssey Book 9 Pg. 212-213. Odysseus ended up using his creativity and cleverness to escape and leave the Cicones, from The Odyssey Pg. 278-279 (P. 264-270). Odysseus was dishonest and didn’t inform his men that 6 of them were going to be eaten up by Scylla. If Odysseus told his men that 6 of them were going to die, they certainly would have started a mutiny against Odysseus and abandon their voyage, like they’ve done so in the past. Odysseus is a great leader who demonstrates the greatness of sacrifice, the love of being honorable, and the gifts for being

Odysseus shows several heroic traits throughout The Odyssey. The most important of these traits is intellect, which Odysseus shows several times during The Odyssey.

Leadership is a difficult quality to obtain. There are many characteristics that person needs to have in order to be considered a leader. Most important characteristics to have while in charge are intelligence, common sense, cautiousness, and bravery. Two leaders that are well-known in history are Maria Theresa of Austria and Odysseus, the main character in Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey. This epic poem has a main focus of leadership and it is a great piece of text to get the reader to ask questions and try to find out the characteristics that make a good leader. There are questions like were these people effective or ineffective along with who was the better leader. After research, it is undoubtedly so, that Maria Theresa was a greater leader than Odysseus. Though, Odysseus and Maria Theresa both showed tremendous amounts of wonderful qualities and achievements, they both still had their faults. Even with both leaders having their fair share of faults, it is the end results of their reigns that will be looked upon most to make judgements.