Was Odysseus a Good Leader?
W a s O d y s s e u s a G o o d L e a d e r ? "'Nobody — that's my name. Nobody — so my mother and father called me, all my friends.'" ~ Book 9 (page 223, lines 410–411) An image of a typical Greek ship. Source: etc.usf.edu Note: The book referenced throughout this was The Odyssey by Homer, Translated by Robert Fagles. Odysseus: A Proclaimed Hero In the few thousand-year-old epic poem, The Odyssey, we follow a man named Odysseus, son of Laertes, who goes on a perilous journey to return to his home in Ithaca, Greece, after becoming a hero in the Trojan War. He overcomes many obstacles and setbacks that cause his journey home to take twenty years. Owing to his brave actions in the Trojan War, Odysseus was known as a "king" and a great leader. But if he was such an acclaimed hero, how come he lost his entire army on the return trip home? What Makes a Great Leader? Leadership is the act of leading a group or an organization. A leader is an idol, one w