Write an argument about whether or not Odysseus handles his crew and the challenges he faces with the various monsters. Evaluate his successes and failures in arguing for/against Odysseus as as leader. 200 words.
16 Comments
4/8/2014 10:39:06 pm
Odyssey Editorial
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Walter Jara
4/8/2014 10:50:32 pm
I think Odysseus is a good but developing leader. The one thing he is excellent at as a leader is holding responsibility for his men. For example, in the Lotus Eaters section of the Odyssey, when his men are losing their hope of going home after eating the Lotus Odysseus tied his men that ate to the ship and forced all the others to get back to the ship and continue sailing. Odysseus made sure his men would not fall for the enemy and for that he shows care for his men. He makes sure they’re in check and ready to fight and he will do whatever is necessary to make sure his men won’t fall. Although these sort of things are excellent for a leader, like taking responsibility and risking your life for the team, but his choices as a leader are not very accurate and wise. First off he told his name to the Cyclopes after defeating which is not a good idea if he’s going to live and plus he went into the Cyclops’s home to steal his food when he was not there which caused the problems with the Cyclopes in the first place. Odysseus has good traits but not a good head when making decisions on where to go except for coming up with attacks for the next battle. Odysseus is developing as a leader, I think.
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Jay Luc
4/8/2014 11:24:40 pm
Odysseus is a great hero, and uses his advantage to the best. He knows how to get him and his crew out of bad situations, like with Polyphemus. Getting Polyphemus fooled, takes a smart mind.
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Blake Borders
4/9/2014 06:40:05 am
Odysseus is a excellent hero. He is all around perfectly skilled for every situation. The perfect hero, he has, strength, speed, wits, and leadership skills. However, his curiosity gets the best of him most of the time. For example, when on the Cyclops island, his curiosity lured him and his men into a trap where they were stuck in the Cyclops's lair. Although Odysseus's intelligence was able to trick the Cyclops and get most of his men to safety he still let himself get in that troublesome situation. However, all in all Odysseus is very faithful to his crew and his eyes are always on the prize, awaiting the day they arrive home and all his men safe and sound and where he can see his wife after the many years they have been apart.
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Jordan Clement
4/9/2014 04:10:24 pm
I believe that Odysseus is a leader in process, because of his decisions being both blunt and cunning. He lets his men and him enter a cave and take the owners food. He tells the Cyclops his name, country, and other personal information. These are examples of Odysseus being blunt. He tricks the Cyclops into escaping off the island, and was very brave after seeing his men be eaten alive. I say Odysseus is best for leader with the god, Athena, on his side that he is a dangerous foe.
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Joshua Luij
4/9/2014 10:34:16 pm
Odysseus handles his crew and the situation with the monsters well, but has some flaws in his thinking form time to time again. For example, the cave in which the Cyclops was feasting off of human flesh, Odysseus has heard the cries of these people and has seen the horror of the cause. He chose to act, and acted in bravery. Odysseus had come with the plan to stick an iron bar he had noticed earlier into the eye of the Cyclops. They escaped and the Cyclops praise to his father, Poseidon, that Odysseus and his crew will never reach home alive. The flaw in this though is that it made Poseidon real mad.
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Malik
4/10/2014 02:31:07 am
Odysseus is a great leader, but due to his arrogance and inflated ego he sometimes makes grave mistakes. Such as when he told the crew not to eat the cattle but why they absolutely not eat the abundance of cattle wasn't made clear. Many of the decisions Odysseus has made cause various problems and cannot be fixed like the conflict of the Cyclops. When they escape and he decides to taunt the Cyclops was not a good choice because now he has to suffer through the agony of his whole life being ruined and only fixed by his death. Every decision Odysseus made is to help the crew but ultimately the decisions only help him and cause many undesirable situations to be thrust upon Odysseus. If he would have told the men that they would all be killed and he would be the only survivor if they ate the cattle maybe they would have made different decisions. So perhaps some of the decisions Odysseus has made this far will be regretted but they may cause him to make more affective choices in the future due to his many experiences. Many of the events that have occurred thus far can prove to be quite helpful to Odysseus’ choices towards his kingdom for the sake of the rest of the people.
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Wyatt Gardner
4/10/2014 04:42:36 am
I think that Odysseus is an outstanding leader. He has been able to face all of his challenges without defeat and has certainly got his comrades in mind. Odysseus, being a warrior himself should know the qualities to being a leader and how to lead some men so it doesn’t surprise me at all that he has been able to perform such tasks. He has definably kept morale high throughout his men and they have not disobeyed him because they have a faith in him. Since his crew has faith in him he was able to get past such challenges and obstacles. Odysseus has shown Respect to his crew by pulling them off of the island with the Lotus Eaters where he puts his crew’s well being into his own hands and forces them onto the ship. He shows his Duty by not giving up on difficult tasks and by showing to his crew that he isn’t afraid of anything that is thrown at him so that his crew will follow Odysseus, as he is fearful. The only bad thing that I can say about his leadership style is that he hid the destiny of his crew from them so they didn’t know what was going to become of them and that he also let his crew eat Helios’ cattle and let them face the consequences.
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Katharine O.
4/10/2014 07:43:35 pm
In his struggles against the various adversaries that he faces, Odysseus does manage to keep control of his men fairly well. Although there are some failures – such as people being eaten by Polyphemus – he tries very hard and usually does a good job. For example, he knows when things are going too far, and he takes the necessary measures to get things back under control. In the instance with the Lotus Eaters – when some of Odysseus’ men try eating lotus and are drugged by it – he does what he has to to get them to come back, even if it means tying them up under a bench and getting everyone else to row as fast as they can. Of course, there are times when he should probably get better control of them and keep them from getting turned into pigs by Circe, among other…..misfortunes. Overall, however, he manages his crew confidently and with fairly good control.
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Tyshiana Grace
4/10/2014 08:00:50 pm
I think Odysseus is an okay leader though sometimes he might not make the wisest choices for instance with the Cyclops polyphemus when Odysseus told him his real name that wasn’t wise at all. But Odysseus is loyal to his men and that’s a good quality in a leader. Another thing that Odysseus has that a leader has is that he takes responsibility for his crews actions and helps them through the troubles that he puts them in.
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Haeley H
4/10/2014 08:07:57 pm
Odysseus is a great hero. Not all good, but not all bad, its pretty evened out. He is very smart and has good wits and tries to look out for his shipmates or crew the best he can. He makes bad decisions sometimes tho, and his curiosity leads him into bad situations like when they went into the Cyclops island, that was a huge risk. However he got most of his men out of there alive and used his smarts to trick the Cyclops. He also tries to get his men out of the rough situations they keep getting into, but he hies things from them. Like the prophecy and how it said that he would be the only one to survive, he kept that to himself instead of telling them and he was the lone survive after the crash. Also when he knew the voice was so beautiful it would drive him crazy he made the crew promise to tie him up and not let him out no matter what.
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Isaiah Higgs
4/10/2014 08:20:54 pm
I believe that Odysseus and his crew are not the smartest but the toughest.
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Kris C
4/28/2014 04:05:14 am
I believe that Odysseus is both good, and bad. He knows how to handle stress well. In the cyclops situation for instance, he faces the giant with great courage, and even when death seemed inevitable, he conjured a plan to escape. His bad side shows when they are trapped on the Island with the cattle. Even if he didn't think it would matter much, he should have told his men what danger might come to them if they were to eat the cattle. A good example would have prevented any ideas to even look or breath the the cattles direction. In these ways, he shows some characteristics of a true leader. He lead the men in times of great danger, and face any challenge he came across. However, that's not a good thing. The danger that awaited them was all known to Odysseus. A warning should have been given to them before the trip had even ensued. This sort of makes the scales unbalanced. Great leaders don't just show great confidence in themselves, they ask for their crew members to have the same. Even if the stakes are highly unlikely, even the most willing crew of small numbers could have accomplished what the crew of great numbers who were unaware that they would soon face an untimely demise.
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Andy B
4/29/2014 01:42:26 am
Odysseus's actions as a hero were mediocre. He sacrificed all of the men he did only to get his personal wants accomplished.
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Joshua Lil
4/30/2014 11:02:13 pm
Oddyseus, I think, needs to focus more on the fact that his crew is dying left right and center. He's been more about getting home than the certanty of the survival of his crew. The monsters he's faced and the challenges he had to overcome make him more narsasistic to get home with crew or without. His crew had to of realized this at some point in time that the gods were only stalling Oddyseus to drive him mad. He needs devoloping in his leadership skills and should've while he was on land marched back to his kingdom because he knew Posideon was messing with but he thought it be better to try and beat the god of the sea.
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Oliver Pehrson
5/7/2014 02:31:36 am
Odysseus is a good hero, I'm not going to lie. The only thing he needs to improve a lot, is that he needs to control his crew. They do what ever they want with out getting any lecture from Odysseus. For example: When they are at the Sun God's house, all Odysseus says is, don't eat the cows. Okay, well, your men are hungry, they will probably eat the cows, unless you tell them the consequences. It was dumb of him not to. Now his crew all died. He can't bring them back to life either. Now all of the wives and children at home don't have a father or husband, because they all died. Also, why did he keep going to other islands. That put them in more danger. Was this guy even thinking? He is a good hero, but not a good leader
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