Odysseus's Leadership In The Odyssey

It’s a classical moral dilemma: do you lie or keep information from those you care about in order to better their lives, or do you tell them the truth, and risk ruining the relationship or potentially, some aspect of their life. This problem is portrayed in many forms of media, and it’s not always handled the same way. In The Odyssey, the protagonist, Odysseus, is forced to make this decision, with the negative outlook being the death of his crew members. As the leader, Odysseus is the one faced with making such decisions. While he initially has poor leadership skills at the beginning of his journey, Odysseus does have great potential as a leader, and as such, his leadership skills grow over the course of The Odyssey. When his travels start,

Namely, he is arrogant, and doesn’t trust his crew with information. This is evidenced as he “[calls stinging taunts] back to the cyclops” that he had just blinded and escaped from (Homer 9:530). Odysseus has already escaped the danger, but instead of staying away from it, he angers the cyclops putting himself and his crew in danger once more. This portrays his arrogance due to the fact that Odysseus feels the need to show his superiority over his enemies, even when he clearly is not superior. Odysseus also has poor leadership skills in the fact that he doesn’t trust his crew. This occurs several times; namely after Odysseus and his crew depart from the Aeolian island, and when they approach Scylla. Directly after surviving the cyclops, Odysseus and his crew encounter Aeolus, the king of the Aeolian island. As they depart, he gifts Odysseus “a sack…

As mentioned previously, after sailing past the Sirens, Odysseus makes the decision to “[not] mention Scylla” (12:242). While he doesn’t tell his crew off all of the dangers, he does tell them about Charybdis, the other danger. Because he doesn’t withhold all information from his crew, this shows that Odysseus is not a lost cause as a leader. Later, when Odysseus arrives in Ithaca, he disguises himself as a beggar, and encounters his swineherd, Eumaeus. Eumaeus listens to Odysseus and his foretellings, but the swineherd shuts him down, telling Odysseus that it was “a fine yarn [Odysseus] told”, and that he should wait until Telamachus returns, who will reward Odysseus if his story is true. (14:574) This banter between the two shows that Odysseus was trying to test if the swineherd is still loyal to Odysseus. Later in the story, Odysseus trusts the swineherd to side with him, and brings him fully in on the plan. Together, these two elements show that Odysseus has become a more trusting figure. Further into the story, after Odysseus arrives back in Ithaca, he meets with Telemachus. Shortly after their reunion, Odysseus shares his plan to “put [Telemachus’ and his own] fighting strength” against those of the suitors (16:300). This time, Odysseus has shared everything with those he has trusted, showing Odysseus has grown as a leader because he does not