Tuesday, April 23, 2013
I'll Follow You to Hell and Back: Odysseus as Leader
Odysseus leaves Troy with nine ships full of men. By the time he is rescued by Calypso, however, all his men have perished. His men are killed by Ciconians, Polyphemous and the Laestrogonians. Yet at the same time, he rescues his men from Polyphemous' cave and Circe's enchantment. Is Odysseus a good leader who is just cursed by the gods? A good leader with a mutinous crew? Or is he a poor leader who causes his own problems because of misplaced ideals, or reckless behavior or poor leadership skills? Or perhaps somewhere in between or none of the above? Explain your answer using examples from the text to support your point.
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Throughout the Odyssey, it becomes clear that Odysseus is not a very good leader. This is because while Odysseus often times has good intentions in his orders, he is not able to control his crew well enough to complete the orders. One point in the text where this is extremely evident is when Odysseus and his crew are at the island where Helios’ cattle live. Odysseus clearly advises his crew not to eat the cattle because the gods will punish them, but while Odysseus is asleep, a shipmate “opened up his fatal plan to friends” (12. 65). His shipmates went against Odysseus’ will and ate the cattle, resulting in an extreme punishment from the gods. Even though Odysseus gave his crew a good order, they chose to go against it. If Odysseus was more forceful with his leadership and was made sure that they would follow this order, the gods would not have punished the crew. Another reason why Odysseus is not a good leader is because he is much too stubborn and reckless. This shows when Odysseus decides to go into a Cyclops’ cave, feast on his food, and stay in the cave for an extended amount of time, even though his crew was telling him that it was not a good idea. Odysseus is too stubborn to take their advice, and it results in an extreme consequence that results in the loss of several shipmates' lives. Clearly, because of Odysseus’ frequent inability to think decisions through; he is not a very good leader.
ReplyDeleteThroughout The Odyssey, Odysseus’s leadership is put to the test, and in many cases, he does not fulfill the responsibility of commanding his crew. Rather than leading his crew and facing his problems, he is often mysteriously asleep. One example of his poor leadership is when his crew is faced with a food famine, and he fails to help them find food. Odysseus tells his men to not kill any of the cattle no matter what, but when the crew runs out of food, Odysseus has “a soothing slumber fell from my eyes” (12.393). He then went “down…to our ship at the water’s edge” (12.394) to fall asleep. This shows that Odysseus is a poor leader because he was unable to help his crew in time of need. Odysseus has other times in which his leadership is put to the test, and fails to keep his crew safe, such as the instance with the Cyclops. Odysseus leads his men to an island where there is a cave which Odysseus ventures into in order to find food. Odysseus and his men see that a giant lives there, and it is known that giants are deadly, but Odysseus makes the rash decision to keep his crew in the cave. When the Cyclops comes back, he risks his crew’s deaths by not leaving the island. The Cyclops snatches up two of Odysseus’s men, and eats them whole. This shows that Odysseus is incapable of keeping his men safe, and has no regard for them at all because he does not care when and if they are killed. He purposely leads them into deathly situations, which harm the crew numerously. Odysseus has no care for his dead men throughout the entire book.
ReplyDeleteOverall Odysseus is a terrible leader. His poor leadership was manifested when he is in the cave of the Cyclops. After escaping Odysseus felt that he had to announce that he was responsible for defeating the Cyclops. This decision leads to the Cyclops telling Poseidon who had harmed him. As a result ,Poseidon felt determined to attack Odysseus and his men. Therefore, Odysseus set his men up to be killed. Another example of Odysseus's insufficient leadership skills is when he was given specific guidelines to avoid Scylla, Charybdis & the Sirens. Instead of Odysseus doing his best to keep his men safe, when he was confronted with Scylla & Charybdis he takes SIX of his men to fight a SIX headed monster and says, "Deadly Charybdis- Can't I possibly cut and run from her and still fight Scylla off when Scylla strikes my men?"(12 130-131) Odysseus's ignorance in turn lost him six men when he could have just stayed underneath the ship and kept his men safe. Odysseus has also fallen asleep at key moments in the book such as when Odysseus says " On the tenth our own land hove into sight at last - we were so close we could see men tending fires." (10 33-35). When Odysseus made this decision it was not in mind that in a few minutes he would be back on shore anyways so why would he bother to sleep. This incident just shows that Odysseus is to impatient to wait and get his men, who have been waiting for years, home.
ReplyDeleteMany things in the Odyssey have proved Odysseus to be an overall bad leader. Odysseus is cursed by the Gods as a result of the bad choices he has made and the impulses he decided to follow. Odysseus is indeed an intelligent leader yet he lets his anger or personal feelings get the best of him and he tends to make things worse in many situations. In addition to that, Odysseus cannot control his crew and lets them do as they want even though he knows the choices they are making will result in trouble. Odysseus becomes too reckless and hubris with his decision making and doesn’t take into consideration the possible outcomes of his decisions. “if any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shamed you so-say Odysseus, raider of cities, he gouged out your eye, Laertes’ son who makes his home in Ithaca!” (9.559-562). This quote symbolizes a bad decision Odysseus has made which makes him a bad leader. Instead of simply leaving the Island while he still could without causing a fight, Odysseus shouted his real name out to Polyphemous, getting Poseidon on his bad side. Odysseus let his pride in his own self and in result of that he let the God’s feel hatred for him which is why his crew was unable to survive the journey that could have ended a while before it actually did. Odysseus decided to act on impulse yelling out is name causing the gods to be angry at him. Since he decided to do this, the trip back to Ithaca became a race for survival. In addition to his bad decision making, Odysseus also seems to fall “asleep” every time his ship mates need him most. This brings up the possibility that Odysseus might be faking being asleep to escape the duties of being a leader during tough times. “I’d prayed to all the gods who rule Olympus, down on my eyes they poured a sweet, sound asleep," (12.364- 5). This quote symbolizes how Odysseus falls asleep throughout his journey with his shipmates. Had he not fallen asleep so many times when they needed him most, chances are many of his men would have survived the journey. Also, had Odysseus not done the things he did throughout the journey, his men would probably have lived through and lived to see their families back home. No matter how great Odysseus is, one cannot overlook the numerous mistakes he has made which ultimately make him a bad leader.
ReplyDeleteAt times Odysseus is a great leader, such as during the Trojan War when they were in the horse and helped the Aegeans win the war. At other times he can be a horrible leader. He will only care about himself and becomes very selfish. Instead of leading his crew and helping them out, he throws them under the bus. An example of this is when they get to the island of the sun god. He doesn’t care about the crew's health, but instead he focuses on not messing up so he can get home. Another example is when he receives the winds from Aeaus and end up messing up, because he keeps stuff to himself. Odysseus shows great leadership in the face of danger, but is to selfish and cannot get the respect from his crew. There is not a mutual relationship between Odysseus and his men. For example Odysseus thinks of his men as, "but his plan was bound to fail, yes, your own reckless folly swept us on to our ruin."(10.030-031) With no respect for his men, Odysseus is bound to lose control of his crew. When Odysseus shows them no respect and does not expect anything from them, they will revolt or strike. Leaving Odysseus having to find his own way home. The same goes for his crew who do not respect Odysseus’ orders. They will eat the cattle and end up setting themselves up for their own doom. All of the stories of lost happen, because there is no mutual respect between Odysseus and his crew. This proves that Odysseus is a good leader at time, but without the mutual respect between him and his crew will never be a great leader.
ReplyDeleteI think that Odysseus is a good leader when it comes to having the brains and the plans to get himself and his men out of a tight spot. He has the mindset like nobody else and can use his cunning to trick other people into getting what he wants and needs for himself and his shipmates. An example of this can be found when the men go to the Cyclops's cave. He was very clever when the Cyclops asks him what his name is. Odysseus says "...Nobody - that’s my name. Nobody - so my mother and father call me, all my friends" (9.410-11). Within this quote here, when he tells the Cyclops his name is "Nobody" he is setting up the Cyclops for failure. With Odysseus telling the Cyclops that his name is “Nobody” , the Cyclops has no idea who that really is. This also helps confuse the Cyclops’s friends when they ask, who attacked you like this, and all the Cyclops can say is “Nobody”. It makes it seem as if Odysseus isn't there and he is just making it up. This was a smart move on Odysseus's part. On the other hand, Odysseus can be a poor leader. He seems to be a bit lenient with his men, and that in turn can cause his men not to want to obey all of his orders, even when those orders are meant to keep them alive and safe. An example of this is when Odysseus and his men went to the island where they were not supposed to eat any of the cattle. Odysseus falls asleep and his men decided that they were not going to listen to his orders and take matters in their own hands. In response to this Zeus says "… as for the guilty ones, why, soon enough on the wine-dark sea I'll hit their [Odysseus's] racing ship with a white-hot bolt, I'll tear it into splinters" (12.416-18). If Odysseus had a better grip of the situation, this would not have happened and he would not have lost all of his men in the end. as it is shows, I think that Odysseus has the makings of a very fine leader, although, he needs more authority over his men to ensure they are truly following their leader.
ReplyDeleteAn ongoing theme in the Odyssey is leadership. In the book we try to tell the difference between a good leader from a bad one and also how the great leaders separated themselves from the rest of the pack. One good way to be classified as a horrible leader is to loose nine ships full of men. Now it would make sense if there was some sort of disease going around and it spread throughout the men like wildfire; but there is no reasonable way to come close to making up a legitimate story as to how you lose that many ships. How much trouble could you be in to make something obliterate nine ships? Basically Odysseus is a horrible leader. But in his defense he is excellent in battle. An example of this is when he and his men were inside the Trojan horse. He kept his crew calm and made sure that they didn’t do anything stupid to blow their cover. He is also very good at getting himself out of trouble. Unfortunately for him and his crew not many of the gods like him so he ends up getting in trouble a whole lot, and he has to spend his time getting out of trouble. He is very strategic in his plans, and is also creative in his strategies. He has the potential to be a very good leader, but he decides to do little things that cause big problems that will always hold him back. Whenever he falls asleep bad things happen like when his crew ate the sun gods cattle. He has very little trust in his crew and they just see him as a pushover. The only way he could be better if his crew listened to him, but since they don’t he’s just never going to be a very good leader.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the Odyssey Odysseus’s leadership abilities are tested, but many times he fails to show good leadership. As the Odyssey continues to go on it is clear that Odysseus is not a good leader. Odysseus often gives his crew good advice or good orders but he fails to follow through with these orders. His crew has very little respect for him which results in them not follow his orders. Odysseus is also not able to follow through with his orders because he continuously falls asleep. An example of this is when Odysseus tells his men not to eat the cattle of Helios. Odysseus gives his crew a long speech about how they should not eat Helios’s cattle. The speech seems to be convincing but when Odysseus falls asleep his crew, “…down on my eyes they poured a sweet, sound sleep… as Eurylochus opened up his fatal plan to friends” (12. 364-365). In this quote his shipmates go against his previous command and eat the cattle of the sun god. This results in a fatal punishment from Zeus. Even though Odysseus gave his crew an excellent command his lack of forcefulness allowed his crew do otherwise. Another reason why Odysseus is not a good leader is because he tries to keep too many secrets from his crew. An example of this is when he refused to tell his crew what is in the sack. In this sack there were very powerful winds that could get the crew back to Ithaca. Since Odysseus kept this from his crew one of his crew members got curious and opened the bag and ruined their chance to get back to Ithaca safely. If Odysseus would have told his men what was in the bag maybe this wouldn't have happened. Odysseus's bad decisions reflect that he is not a very good leader.
ReplyDeleteOdysseus proves throughout the novel that he has the potential to become a good leader but he lets his selfishness cloud his thoughts while en route back to Ithaca. After his victory in Troy, he left with a few ships full on men. Slowly they dwindled down to one, and then just him. Although losing a few men was inevitable, not all of them had to die. An example of when his good intentions almost become foggy but he decides against being selfish is when his crew faced Scylla. He had a choice to fight the monster and lose all of his men or put just six on top of the ship and lose them, but make it past the monster. Once he sees the monster take his crew, he briefly considers attacking, which would end in losing many men and even his own life, but then decides against it. Since he decided against attacking the monster, he showed good leadership because he thought of the outcome if he had attacked and decided against it. An example of good leadership ruined by selfish intentions is the story of the Cyclops. This scenario shows both good and bad leadership. He gets himself into a bad situation by resting his crew in the Cyclops cave, but creates a smart plan to escape, even if his numbers have decreased. Once his remaining crew escapes by his cunning plan, and is leaving the island on the ships, he yells and tells the Cyclops his name, which in the end leads to the deaths of many of his crew. As it goes in the book, “If any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shamed you so-say Odysseus, raider of cities, he gouged out your eye, Laertes’ son who makes his home in Ithaca!” (9.559-562). By being selfish and arrogant, the principles of a bad leader, he was the main cause of the many deaths that occurred on his trip back to Ithaca. If he had acted as a good leader, many lives could have been saved. He shows he could be a good leader but he has to keep his focus, which he is not very good at.
ReplyDeleteIt is plain to see that Odysseus is a horrible leader. Just look at what happens on the way back from Troy. He left Troy with 6 boats full of men. He lost 5 of those ships when he decided to stay in a clearly inhabited cave of the cyclops. To be a leader, you need to be able to recognize signs that a place is inhabited by a giant people before you attempt to plunder it. Later on he loses the bag of wind when he falls asleep. One could argue that this is not his fault, but if the instant he falls asleep his men disobey him, how good a leader is he? How much respect is he really afforded? Later on, when he falls asleep again, and because he failed to warn his men about the sun god's cattle, they eat them, their ship is destroyed, and all of them are killed. He also risks his men's lives by not stopping up his own ears with beeswax. If some of them had been unable to withstand his pleas, he could have been untied and then jumped off of the ship, then have to be rescued.
ReplyDeleteOdysseus' leading is a good leader in some ways, and a bad leader in others. He is a good leader because he does not quit. He is very consistent in his effort and will not accept defeat. But, he is too reckless when he fights. For instance, Odysseus left Troy with six full boats of men. He decided to fight a cyclops, and during that fight lost five of his ships, and returned with a mere one ship. Odysseus told the cyclops, "...Nobody - that’s my name. Nobody - so my mother and father call me, all my friends" (9.410-11) which came back to haunt him and his shipmates because when they completed the fight, Odysseus told the cyclops his name. This hurt Odysseus and his shipmates because the cyclops then cast a curse onto the ships and he lost five of them, along with many shipmates. This makes Odysseus a poor leader because he needs to know when he, as well as his crew, cannot fight anymore. He crossed the line with the cyclops and it cost him many lives, from people he cared about. Although going into this fight with the cyclops almost guaranteed the death of men, Odysseus spiked that number by yelling to the cyclops (Polyphemus). So, these points prove that Odysseus was relentless when it came to fighting, but he crossed the line many times and lost men that could have kept their lives.
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