in The
Odyssey it can be said that he is shown to be more the bad than the good
— this being down to his very arrogant side that got him into trouble
with the gods more than once. His personal desire to have glory and fame
often clouded Odysseus’ judgement as a leader and would often place his
men in danger because of this. However; his poor leadership and
judgement is a completely different “page” to his qualities as a hero
etc. to the Greeks. BUT it was also said that Odysseus was cursed by
Poseidon to wander the seas for 10 years during which he would lose all
his men and only return through the aid of others — so you could say it
was inevitable that his men were to be killed regardless of good or bad
leadership — it really depends but Odysseus really didn’t help matters,
and neither did his crew that appears to be rather built of men who
didn’t use their brains.
In The Odyssey,
Odysseus is presented to be a poor leader mainly through the bad choices
he made: often thinking he knew better than the gods and thought he
would succeed following only his plans. A good example of this
particular point is the whole trouble with Scylla, the sea monster that
lived a top of a jagged mountain peak over hanging a narrow channel/sea
passage that Odysseus needed to stir his ship past. The witch-goddess
Circe had warned Odysseus about Scylla and the futility of opposing her
due to her strength and might; and Odysseus decided to not tell his men about the impending danger and made them carry on heading through the channel/sea passage instead of going around; yet despite this Odysseus dons his own armour ready to fight Scylla.
This is one piece of evidence from The Odyssey that shows his poor
quality as a leader because he led his men into an unsuspecting battle
and made sure he was protected and ready so that he could get the glory:
instead of heeding Circe’s warning. Six of Odysseus’ best men were
killed as a result.
You could also say that
Odysseus should have stayed with his men instead of going off to pray
when they became stranded on the Island of Thrinacia due to a storm that
Zeus had created. However this was more his men’s stupidity as they
decided to go off and hunt the sacred cattle of the sun god Helios
despite the warnings of Circe and the spirit Tiresias to not. Zeus
punished Odysseus and his crew (through Helios wanting justice for the
sacrilege) later on by causing them to suffering a shipwreck as they
were driven towards Charybdis, the sister of Scylla and the huge sea
monster that created a large whirlpool that sucked ships into her mouth.
All of the remaining crew drowned or were eaten except for Odysseus who
clung to a tree branch directly above Charybdis. Later he was rescued
by Hermes from the Island of Ogygia after being forced to be Calypso’s
lover.
Despite that however, Odysseus did
take into consideration his crew when facing the Sirens on his homeward
journey before he met Scylla and Charybdis. He saved his crews life by
getting them to seal their ears with wax however, Odysseus wanted to
hear the Siren’s song so he was simply tied to the ship’s mast…. They
sailed past them with little incident. This particular part shows
Odysseus actually using his brain and being a good leader — so it really
does depend on what part of the Odyssey you read as he does excel
himself in areas but then also does stupid things elsewhere.
In
conclusion, Odysseus’ had bouts of bad leadership and glimmers of good
judgement throughout The Odysseus - it really depends on how you want to
look at the scenarios. Some could argue that Odysseus was trying to
make his men not scared of Scylla and was trying to maintain order on
his ship; whilst others will say he was completely wrong and it was
because he didn’t tell his men about the approaching danger was why they
were killed so quickly as they were not prepared, and others can say it
was inevitable due to Poseidon’s curse/foresight — all will make sense
but the one thing that The Odyssey does portray is that Odysseus always
wanted glory and fame, and was incredibly arrogant when it came to the
gods and because of this you could certainly say his judgement was
clouded and he led his men into many perils that could have been handled
differently or avoided.
Hope that helped answer your question or shed some light on the subject that others can then expand upon =)
