Character Of Odysseus In Homer's Odyssey

In the epic poem, the Odyssey, written by Homer, it tells of the amazing feats performed by Odysseus. He goes on impossible adventures for the average man; He successfully leads his crew through the sea, or does he? Even though Odysseus may show that he is clever, he also shows that he does not listen, is very temperamental, and is untrustworthy; Because of these character traits, he cannot be an effective leader. To begin, Odysseus shows multiple times that he does not listen to his crew. His crew tries to warn him of the multiple dangers that were to come from his actions, yet he refuses to listen, putting several of his crew’s lives in danger, and even killing a few of them. One of the members of his crew, Eurylochus, witnesses what Circe has done to Odysseus’s men. Eurylochus runs back to the boat that contained the remainder of the crew and tells Odysseus how Circe turned some of the men into pigs. He begs Odysseus to get away from the island, for she is very powerful. Odysseus brushes aside Eurylochus’s warnings and goes to Circe’s tent anyway. From these actions, Odysseus and some of his men are delayed for a whole year; because Odysseus did not care to listen to Eurylochus, when he knew the dangers first hand. Another time Odysseus refuses to listen is when he and his crew …show more content…
They have been deceived by Odysseus a few too many times, and they were thinking he was holding gold and silver for himself. This questions Odysseus’s leadership skill when his own crew cannot trust their captain. Sadly though, that is not the only time that Odysseus’s crew does not believe the words he speaks. Odysseus and his crew land on the land of Helios. Odysseus tells that “ . . . those comrades I had trusted [feast] there,/ eating the cattle they had rounded up,/ the finest beasts in Helios’ herd.”(12.396-398). If Odysseus’s own close friends on his crew do not believe the words Odysseus speaks, how is anyone else going to believe