In the Epic, “The Odyssey,” written by Homer, is the story of a man named, Odysseus, and his experiences and his exploration told through many episodes within the story. Odysseus, as the leader of his men, he lacks qualities of humility, empathy, and focus, which overall prevents him from being qualified as a good leader. In not having humility, it causes Odysseus to often lose focus. During the episode, “The Cyclops,” Odysseus and his men escape the island in which Polyphemus, the cyclops, was keeping them held captive, rather than thinking of his men and immediately leaving, Odysseus takes the time to gloat and risks their safety. (Cyclops.
Odysseus should not be granted an award for being a good leader in the Odyssey Although he fought well and won many battles he still made some very selfish decision 's. The Choices that the so called "Great" leader made caused the innocent solders to lose their life 's Odysseus chose to think by him self and not discuss with his mates about his dangerous ideas. Odysseus is A man know from the city/island of Troy, he is a so called leader, knight and great fighter. One of his selfish decisions that he made was when him and the soilders wandered into the cave of the cyclops, his soldiers suggested that they should take some food and leave, while Odysseus deiced to stay longer and examine the cyclops cave, This is were things get worse, as
Odysseus was normally viewed as a strong, heroic figure, but those who knew him knew that there was more to him then just a hero. They knew that he could be very curious at times and almost willing to sacrifice anything to find out what he wanted to know. Along his twenty year journey away from home he encountered many different gods and monsters that faced him with trials and tribulations. Through these trials Odysseus’ strengths and weaknesses were exposed in several different ways. One of the first monsters that Odysseus and his men encountered were the cyclops.
When people get lost without a way home, they will usually sacrifice everything to get home. Being on the way home for ten years already caused Odysseus to make the brash decision of sailing past Scylla, even after Circe had warned, “No mariners yet can boast they've raced their ship past Scylla’s lair without some mortal blow”(9.108-109). This brash decision lead to death of some of his crew, he sacrificed his men for himself. Odysseus also decided that in order to get home he and his men we to go, “to the House of Death”, which is extremely dangerous. So many things could have gone wrong, they may have never even made it out to get out.
Also, we can see from the text that Odysseus has defied death multiple times with requires a lot of cleverness. Another example of Odysseus’s dishonesty helping him is in the quote,” My name is Nohbdy… Nohbdy, Nohbdy tricked me… ah well, if nobody has played you foul there in your lonely bed, we are no use in pain given by great Zeus… So saying they trailed away,”(Applebee, 906). In the quote Odysseus uses his cleverness to trick the cyclops into telling the other cyclopes that “nobody” is hurting him. This allows him and his men to not be found or hurt by all the other cyclopes.
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. The story of the Cyclops in Homer 's The Odyssey illustrated how Odysseus '
This is shown first through the taunting of the Cyclops. As stated above, Odysseus taunts the Cyclops who shows that he is more than capable of wrecking their ship and the people on it. Besides that, the crew begs for Odysseus to be sensible and stop with the taunting, but they were unable to “bring [his] fighting spirit round.” The only reason why he does stop is because the Cyclops eventually makes a big enough wave with the top of a mountain thrown in the water to push their vessel to another island (9. 530-608). Due to the pleading of his crew, this shows that Odysseus is inconsiderate because they could have easily died and left their families behind.
Odysseus is extremely selfish by betraying his crew. His crew believes that Odysseus is trying to help them return home, when he is actually only concerned about himself.
In real life we make our own decisions, and some of those decisions lead to bad outcomes, even though we don’t blame ourselves for many of our mistakes, we are to blame. In Greek Mythology, humans make many important decisions in their life, many of them lead to horrible endings. In the journey of Odysseus, he made many choices throughout his journey that eventually led to the death of all his crew members. In other stories from mythology like the stories of Theseus and Icarus, they made decisions that led them and their loved ones to life threatening situations. Even Zeus once stated “My word, how mortals take the gods to task!
He has to overcome his foes and his environment. In the cavern with the cyclops, Odysseus must fight to survive. He and his men have to use wit and strategy to escape the cave. After the first attack on his men Odysseus knew he would need to develop a plan to survive. Odysseus and his men are put in danger as they encounter their foe:“Neither reply nor pity came from him, but in one stride he clutched at my companions and caught two in his hands like squirming puppies to beat their brains out, spattering the floor” (Homer 903).
Odysseus and his men were fleeting from Polyphemus’ island, he said, “ Cyclops, if ever mortal man inquire how you were put to shame and blinded, tell him Odysseus, raider of cities, took your eye…” (book 9, lines 416-418, textbook). Odysseus is being to boastful and therefore it caused him and his man to become cursed and their journey to last for several years to come. Odysseus’ actions caused his men to pay for just being too full of pride and egotistical. After encountering Aeolus, king of the winds, odysseus received a bag full of wind so they could finally return home to Ithaca, “ nine whole days we sailed, nine nights, nonstop.
In the book called The Odyssey by Homer, it mainly follows the story of a king of a village called Ithaca, hundreds of years ago-This man, is named Odysseus. Odysseus goes through many adventures after the victory of the Trojan War. However, this is where Odysseus, is not being as strong as a great war hero and a king as he should be. Although Odysseus was seen as a very strong person, physically and mentally, he lacks the appreciation and the care of his crew throughout the trials and didn’t think through many of his actions thoroughly and how they would affect not only his crew but people around him.
TS1 (Thesis): In The Odyssey, Homer depicts Odysseus’ real foe as the theme of temptation with displays of hubris and lustrous goddesses, which portrays the importance of being vigilant to not submit to temptation. ST1: Homer depicts that Odysseus is determined to get home, but Odysseus succumbs to temptation when he leads his crew into the cyclops lair, eats the cyclops’ food, and demands for a gift, resulting in a protracted journey home. 1: Homer displays Odysseus as recklessly brave when he requests, “we’re at your knees, in hopes of… a guest-gift”(9.300) from the cyclops. 2: It is apparent that Odysseus has given into the temptation to be arrogant when he declares for the cyclops to give them, “a guest-gift,” after Odysseus and his men have broken into the cyclops lair, showing even further Odysseus’ isn’t vigilant to
Odysseus is an epic hero because of his bravery and confidence during every obstacle throughout his journey In Part 1 whie Odysseus is about to come across cyclops cave, he says “I brought along and victuals in a bag, for in my bones I knew some towering brute would be upon so soon- all outward power, a wild man, ignorant of civility. “ Odysseus is showing his bravery of not being petrified of what he might come across, like the cyclops. Odysseus has no intention of harming them, but he is not sure what their intention is. This example is important because not only does it show confidence in himself, he also shows confidence in his men. In Part 2 Odysseus also shows his confidence in his men in part 2 where Eurylochus says, “Are you flesh and blood, Odysseus, to endure more than a man can?
The main character Odysseus in the Odyssey written by Homer is generally thought to be a great hero; however, he shows more traits of a quite flawed character on closer inspection. Around the beginning of Odysseus’ journey home after the war, Odysseus decides to take a detour to the home of a cyclops deciding to not listen to his men’s suggestions to leave while they still could; consequently, it does not end well: “Ah, how sound that was, Yet I refused. I wished to see the caveman, what he had to offer no pretty sight it turned out, for my friend” (9.130-132). This thought by Odysseus shows that he realized his decision to go to the mysterious island wasn’t the most rational one and that his men’s pleas to leave were the better option, but he decides to be stubborn and place his curiosity before his men’s safety resulting in a non-heroic
