Tuesday, September 29, 2015
I'll Follow You to Hell and Back: Odysseus As a 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, Polyphemus and the Laestrygonians. Yet at the same time, he rescues his men from Polyphemus' 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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Odysseus is not a good leader because he doesn’t prioritize the lives of his soldiers above his own desires. In book nine, Odysseus arrives at the island of the Cyclops and he brings his crew to one of the Cyclops’s cave to steal food. Immediately after, his men urge him to escape before the Cyclops, Polyphemus, comes back but Odysseus, “…would not give way/ and how much better it would have been/ not till I saw him, saw what gifts he’d give/” (9.356-8). Because of Odysseus, his crew stay with him on the island. This proves later to be a bad decision, one that could have been avoided if he didn’t want to glimpse the Cyclops. Odysseus eventually gets them out of the situation by stabbing the eye of Polyphemus and riding out on the underbellies of his sheep. However, when they are escaping, Odysseus taunts Polyphemus because of his desire for fame or kleos. His crew beg him to stop and ask him: “‘So headstrong—why? Why rile the beast again?’” (9.550). Despite these protests, Odysseus taunts Polyphemus more, this time using his exact name and origin. Polyphemus responds by sending a prayer to Poseidon, cursing Odysseus with bad luck, which may have played a part in the misfortune his crew receives the rest of his journey. On Circe’s island, Odysseus also places his desires above the best interest of his men. During their time on the island, they stay for a whole year because Odysseus was engaged in a pseudo romantic relationship with Circe. His comrades asked him, “‘Captain, this is madness!/ High time you thought of your own home at last,/ if it really is your fate to make it back alive/ and reach your well-built house and native land/’” (10.520-24). Odysseus is blinded by his feelings for Circe that they waste a whole year on her island. It is only when his crew urge him to set sail home does he finally come around. A good leader would think about what is best for his men before what is best for him. In the end, only Odysseus ends up surviving the return home to Ithaca while the rest of his men die because of decisions he made.
ReplyDeleteOdysseus makes many poor decisions throughout The Odyssey that make him a very bad leader. First off, in order to be a good leader, one must be respected by those he leads. The first clear example of this is when Odysseus’s crew suspect that he is hiding treasure from them when really it is simply a bag of winds. This is described in book ten, when one of the crew men exclaims, “heaps of lovely plunder he hauls home from Troy/ while wee who went through slogging just as hard/ we go home empty-handed,” (10. 45-47). In this passage, the crewmen feel that they get no credit from Odysseus or anyone, even though they worked just as hard as he. Since they don’t trust Odysseus, and they think he is hiding riches from them, the open the bag and send the ship flying back to where they were. One reason he doesn’t have this respect is because he is selfish and constantly seeking glory. As the remaining ships are leaving the island of Polyphemus, Odysseus makes the selfish decision to call out his name to the cyclops in order to gain fame. He calls out, “‘Cyclops/ 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. 558-562). When he tells Polyphemus his name in search of kleos, the cyclops calls on Poseidon to curse Odysseus so that he never reaches his home. This causes Poseidon to unleash a storm in the path of the ships, killing many crew members. Odysseus’s selfish ways cause him to be distrusted by his crew, making him a very poor leader.
ReplyDeleteOdysseus is a good leader with a mutinous crew, but he also causes some of his own problems. His crew disobeys him when they eat the Sungod’s cattle.
ReplyDeleteBut swear me a binding oath, all here, that if
we come on a herd of cattle or fine flock of sheep,
not one man among us- blind in his reckless ways-
will slaughter an ox or ram. Just eat in peace,
content with the food immortal circe gave us.
In this quote Odysseus is making his men promise that they won’t slaughter and eat the Sungod’s cattle, but they don’t listen to him. His crew also doesn’t trust him. They open the bag of winds because they believe that it is jewels that Odysseus is hiding from them. Both of these actions result in major setbacks, but some of Odysseus’s decisions result in setbacks as well. It is Odysseus who decides to go to the island where the cyclops live, and this decision gets several people killed. He also decides to taunt Polyphemus after he blinds the cyclops and escapes from the island.
Cyclops-
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!
Odysseus is taunting Polyphemus by saying that he is smarter than him. He doesn’t realize it when he does it, but Odysseus is going to face many hardships as a result of this taunting. He also makes bad decisions when sending crew members to meet the rulers of new territory. He sent some of his men to explore the Laestrygonian. This results in all of Odysseus’s men being killed, except for those on his ship. He also sends crew members to talk to Circe, and they end up being turned into pigs. Odysseus causes some of his own problems, but his mutinous crew causes some of them as well. He is both a good and a bad leader.
Odysseus is not a good leader because he is vague with his men and thus endangers them, is self-centered and has bad judgement. Odysseus is vague with his men and instructions for his men. Odysseus does not tell his men his reasoning or why they are doing what they’re doing. For example, Odysseus makes his men swear not to eat the Cattle of the Sun, but doesn’t inform his crew of why. Eurylochus, one of Odysseus’ men tells the rest of the crew, “All the ways of dying are hateful to us mortals, true, but to die of hunger, starve to death- that’s the worst of all. So up with you now, let’s drive off the pick of Helios’ sleek herds, slaughter them to the gods who rule the skies up there” (12. 367-371). Circe warned Odysseus beforehand If Odysseus had told his men that they’d be cursed by the gods if they ate them, his crew members would not have eaten the cattle.
ReplyDeleteHe also is very self-centered. Throughout the entire book, Odysseus has only cared about getting himself home to Ithaca and to get back to his wife, Penelope, and to see his son, Telemachus and he does not take his crew members into consideration. Not only that, he takes each opportunity to give himself fame. When he and his men leave Polyphemus’ cave, Odysseus proclaims, “Cyclops- 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. 558-562). He takes all the credit for it, even though he could not have done it without his men.
Lastly, Odysseus has horrible judgement when leading his crew into battle. For example, when Circe tells him not to fight Scylla because he’ll lose and many people will die, Odysseus thinks it’s a good idea to fight Scylla. He thinks, “But now I cleared my mind of Circe’s orders-/cramping my style, urging me not to harm at all” (12. 245-246). Odysseus blatantly disobeys Circe while keeping in mind that she will kill his men and defeat them. All in all, Odysseus is a bad leader.
I believe that Odysseus is a fair leader, however he is not a great leader. While Odysseus makes mistakes often such as getting involved with the lustrous nymph known as Circe, he always fixes his mistakes transgressed. For example, when Circe turned his men to swine Odysseus did all but panic. He found a way to get them all turned back to human beings. Also, often times on Odysseus’s ship, the mistakes made are made by his incompetent crew. This can be seen in the situation with the Cyclops, the son of Poseidon. While Odysseus commanded that he lead the way into the cave, his crew did not listen and they got killed. There is nothing Odysseus can do if his crew does not respect or listen to him. On top of this, Odysseus devised and successfully executed a plan to get out of the Cyclops’ cave safely. While some of his crew died during this plan. That was also due to their incompetence an unwillingness to listen to their brave leader. All and all, Odysseus is an average leader. While he makes multiple mistakes which puts his and his crew’s lives at risk, he successfully fixes the situation to the best of his ability. Also, from the very start Odysseus was given a terrible and naïve crew. Given this, Odysseus does a good job of dealing with this and cleaning up their multiple mistakes, often times without much help from the rest of his crew.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Odysseus is a good, however imperfect leader. A good leader needs to care for his men, be very strong and courageous, and he has to be very clever. Odysseus is one of the best warriors from the Trojan War. He is also very crafty. He created the idea of the Trojan horse, which won the Trojan War for the Greeks. He also came up with the idea of stabbing Polyphemus in the eye. However, the one thing he does not do is protect his crew. I believe that he cares for them because he mourns their deaths most of the time, but he does not take action to protect them. Everything Odysseus does is mainly for his own survival and fame. When he was leaving the cyclopes' island, he told Polyphemus his name, only for fame. He could have been killed by Polyphemus hurling rocks at him. Also, when Circe told him to not try to fight Scylla, he didn't listen to her so six of his men died; although, some would have died anyway. It is not completely Odysseus's fault that he does not trust his crew very much. I believe that most of his problems were caused by his crew not obeying him completely. They should be doing whatever Odysseus says because he is the captain, but they do not always listen to him. When Odysseus received the bag of wind from Aeolus, his crew opened it. Also, when they landed on Helios's island, they did not listen to him and ate the cattle when Odysseus slept. Overall, Odysseus is a good leader, but he has a few flaws and a bad crew.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the book it is palpable that Odysseus is a bad leader to his crewmen because of his poor actions. In my opinion, being a leader is all about your crew trusting you and having a solid trusty relationship. In book ten, Odysseus’s crew members think Odysseus is hiding some sort of valuable treasure from them. A crew member describes his thoughts as, “heaps of lovely plunder he hauls home from Troy, while we who went through slogging just as hard we go home empty handed (45-46).” This crewmember is describing what his fellow crew members and himself think about Odysseus. This crew member is saying how everyone thinks they are not being heard and get no credit for their hard work even though they do what they can to the best of their ability. After this untrusting scenario, the crewmen open the bag and send the ship flying back to where they originally were. Odysseus also doesn’t prioritize his crewmen and is very selfish about his own needs. For example, Odysseus and his crew members arrive at the island of the Cyclopes and he brings some of his crew members to a Cyclopes cave to see if the unknown person in the cave is not their so that Odysseus can steel food. Doubtful off Odysseus’s choices, his crew men urge him to escape before the cyclopes comes back. Odysseus, “… would not give way and how much better it would have been not till I saw him, saw what gifts he’d give (356).” Because Odysseus was the leader and his crew men were in no mood to go against their leader, they stayed with him in the cave. Later in book ten, this decision is not a favorable one. The cyclopes, Polyphemus comes back and tortures the crew men and even kills some. Odysseus doesn’t want to listen to his crew members, is it far that his crew members have to obey his orders? In my opinion Odysseus is a bad leader because, throughout the book Odysseus takes all the credit for his crew men’s hard work and prioritizes his needs and ideas over his crews.
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ReplyDeleteOdysseus is definitely a terrible leader, as he is self-centered and lacks concern of his own people. When Odysseus and his men escaped the Cyclops’ island, Odysseus became extremely arrogant as he proclaimed his name as the man who blinded Polyphemus:
ReplyDeleteCyclops—
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! (9.558-62)
Polyphemus then offered to help Odysseus, but instead Odysseus kept on insulting Polyphemus. Polyphemus then was angered and prayed to Poseidon to curse Odysseus and all his men:
[Odysseus] never reaches home…
…let him come home late
and come a broken man—all shipmates lost,
alone in a stanger’s ship—
and let him find a world of pain at home! (9.590-95)
This curse was eventually validated as all of Odysseus’s men died but only he returned to Ithaca. When he felt all the pride in blinding Polyphemus, he spat out words without second thoughts of his own crew. When he announced his name, he never acknowledged his crew’s contribution in the escape. Also, he failed to foresee the consequences of angering a God’s son. His lack of foresight and concern of his own people caused Poseidon to punish not just Odysseus but all his men as well. If he would have been more concerning that his actions would burden not himself but also all of his crewmen, everyone probably would have survived. Odysseus also lacked many other crucial leadership skills, one of them having to be the articulation of orders. When Odysseus received the sack of wind from Aeolus, he failed to explain the contents of the sack and eventually caused his crewmen to become jealous and suspicious: Heaps of lovely plunder he hauls from Troy, /while we who went through slogging just as hard, /we go home empty-handed. (10.45-47) His crew then broke open the sack and the ship failed to sail properly. If Odysseus would have been clearer about the contents of the sack, they could have arrived to Ithaca much safer and earlier. After all, Odysseus was a selfish leader would lacked foresight. His men all died as they deserved to return home. If Odysseus would have been more concerning of his own people, they’d probably all arrive Ithaca safe and sound.
I believe Odysseus is a good leader. He has terrible luck as well as a crew who disobey the rules he has set out for their good. Such as the time his crew saw the land of the sun god with his bulls grazing. There his crew did not obey as he specifically stated not to even touch the cattle, but hungry they were they decided to kill herds of the cattle. This resulted in the anger of the sun god, and Zeus' punishment, killing many of the men and driving Odysseus off course. But there may be reasons for his crew's disobedience. It could be that Odysseus has not earned the respect of his men. They may not trust his words and believe he is an unfair man. But whether the reason it was unjust of them to eat the cattle as soon as Odysseus fell asleep. His crew had not only disobeyed him, but Eurylochus had promised not to touch the cattle of the sun, and disobeyed as soon as Odysseus had left. First Eurylochus had convinced them to dock on the island of the sun, for they may not be able to dock in days. "So Eurylochus urged... 'Eurylochus, I'm one against all-the upper hand is yours. But swear me a blinding oath'" (Fagles 280), then after this when Odysseus is not present, Eurylochus urges the rest of the crew to eat the cattle. "So he urged, and shipmates cheered again. At once they drove off the Sungod's finest cattle" (Fagles 282). These are examples of the disobedience of his crew, which eventually lead to the wrath of the gods, unleashed killing the entire crew and driving Odysseus off course.
ReplyDeleteOdysseus is not a good leader because he lets his crew make the decisions, and he does not keep an eye on his crew and their behavior. After Odysseus and his crew pasted the Sirens and Scylla, they come across the island of the Sun, home of Helios, where they heard the sound of cattle. Eurylochus convinces the crew that they need to take a break to stop there and eat the cattle. After the crew votes to go to the island, Odysseus says, “Eurylochus,/ I’m one against all – the upper hand is yours” (12. 321-22). A good leader should not just let his crew do what they want, especially if he knows there is a risk. This is exactly what Odysseus does when he lets his crew go to the island of the Sun. The crew goes to eat the cattle which is supposed to stay unharmed, but the crew eats it anyway, and Odysseus lets this happen. After his crew began eating the cattle that they knew they were not supposed to eat, Odysseus says, “That moment soothing slumber fell from my eyes/ and down I went to our ship at the water’s edge” (12. 393-94). Instead of telling his crew to stop eating, he goes to sleep when they needed guidance the most. A good leader is supposed to be there for his crew when they are not going in the right direction. Sadly, this is not what Odysseus does.
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ReplyDeleteIn the Odyssey, Odysseus is neither a good or bad leader. This is because Odysseus tries to keep his crew safe and has some success in this regard, but does often steer the crew into dangerous situations with his overconfidence. This is shown multiple times throughout the book, one example being Odysseus and co's clash with the Laestrygonians. Odysseus' ship obviously contained finite supplies, so the group would have to stop on some islands to acquire more--the crew was just unlucky with some of the places where they chose to stop at. Odysseus promptly flees the island upon the Laestrygonians' attack in an attempt to safeguard his crew, but the Laestrygonians destroy all of Odysseus' ships except for the one he was one. Bad luck is certainly a factor in this event happening, but Odysseus could have instructed his crew to be very cautious, knowing about their past unfortunate experiences on their journey home. However, Odysseus didn't do this, and his crew simply goes to the leader of the island. A similar example is the crew's encounter with Polyphemus. Odysseus and the crew could have handled approaching the people of the island better; barging into a stranger's cave was brazen. Odysseus is also quite self-assured, and refuses his crew members' request,
ReplyDelete'Let's make away with the cheeses, then come back--
hurry, drive the lambs and kids from the pens
to our swift ship, put out to sea at once!' (9.253-255)
If Odysseus had listened, or at least returned to his ship (stealing is obviously bad, and if the resident of the cave caught the crew in the act, there would be hell to pay), he would have had no trouble; the Cyclops ended up arriving at the cave much later in the day. Again, this is Odysseus' overconfidence showing; he is not a very wary person. However, Odysseus devised a great plan to blind the Cyclops and get the crew back to the ships which worked perfectly. For these reasons, Odysseus is neither a good or bad leader.
Odysseus was a definitely a poor leader at times but a good leader too. He lost many crew members due to his reckless decisions however, he made it home back to Ithaca in the end. Odysseus was an irresponsible leader when he decides that it would be best to lose some of his men to Scylla. He let his men die a horrible death just so he could get home. Odysseus was being very selfish, not realizing that these men had families they wanted to go home to and see just like him. Odysseus didn’t think fully through the whole situation he was about to take on before making his decision or else he probably would have realized that this was wrong and what if it had happened to him. Then he would have loved ones who would be left behind forever and greatly missed just like these men now. An example in the book where it shows Odysseus making poor decisions is where it says, “so now they writhed, gasping as Scylla swung them up her cliff and there at her cavern’s mouth she bolted them down raw- screaming out, flinging their arms toward me, lost in that mortal struggle…” (Fagles 300). Odysseus was being a responsible king when he makes the Cyclops go blind after he stabs his eye out. Here all his men were about to be eaten but most of them were saved by Odysseus. Odysseus only lost a couple men to the Cyclops, but with his quick thinking he quickly stabbed the monster and got the rest of his crew out alive safely. He does this where it says, “I dragged it from the flames, my men clustering round as some god breathed enormous courage through us all. Hoisting high with that olive stake with its stabbing point, straight in to the monsters eye they rammed it hard- I drove my weight on it from above and bored it home…” (Fagles 440). In conclusion, all of this evidence is showing there were times Odysseus let his crew down but also times he lifted them up.
ReplyDelete