Qualities Of An Effective Leader In Homer's The Odyssey

“A leader is the one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way”- John C. Maxwell. Every leader has to have particular characteristics to be an effective leader. In addition, the leader has to have loyal supporters to intermix into a powerful group. The hero of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey demonstrates key traits of effective leadership throughout this epic poem: he is loyal to his crew, he is a fearless commander, and he develops shrewd strategies to get them out of difficult situations. His followers’ failure to return to Ithaca alive is a result of their own foolishness and not caused by poor leadership on Odysseus’ part. Odysseus’ loyalty to his crew show his passion and his drive. Not one time did Odysseus hesitate to save his …show more content…
To be a good leader would be to possess these characteristics but to have brilliant strategies makes Odysseus a great one. In the cave with the cyclops, Odysseus has to be quick on his whip to get them out of that situation. As Polyphemus asks Odysseus for his name, he quickly responds with,”nobody-that’s my name”(9.410). This simple change of the names sets up his whole plan to get out of the cave. Once he blinds the cyclops, Polyphemus screams out nobody has hurt me, nobody has ruined me! As Odysseus is thinking ahead he discovers how to get the cyclops to move the boulder to let them out. Odysseus remarks,”here, cyclops, try this wine”(9.388). What Polyphemus doesn’t know is that this is the gods wine which is extremely strong. In no time Polyphemus passes out drunk to give Odysseus and his men time to blind the beast. The only problem left is how do the men actually get out? Odysseus already has that thought out when he was thinking about how to blind Polyphemus. Odysseus sees a group of sheep and he commands,”that flock… with their splendid thick fleece”(9.474-475). He orders his men to hide under the animals so as Polyphemus feels the coat on the top, it will seem like a normal