Odysseus, the leader and main character in the book The Odyssey by Homer, tries to find his way home for himself and other men trying to get home as well. His leadership skills get him and his men in and out of dangerous situations through many battles. While going through this journey he shows many ways he achieves these goals through good and bad qualities a leader might possess. Two of his specific qualities are cleverness, a positive quality, and curiosity, a negative quality. Odysseus" curiosity makes him lose sight of his responsibilities, though his clever ideas help him to pass by danger's grasp. .
Odysseus" curiosity seems to always lead him into dangerous dilemmas. For example, Odysseus" idea to wait in the monstrous Cyclops' cave until he came back, risks the lives of all his men. Odysseus says, "Cyclops went on filling us his belly / with manflesh," (Homer 193-194). Odysseus" men had to pay a price for Odysseus' irresponsibility. At that moment, a good leader would not think of his own wants and needs before he thinks about how it would affect his men. Odysseus, at times, portrays an irresponsible leader who had a dangerous impact on the men whom have trusted in his leadership.
Although Odysseus" curious characteristic sometimes gets him into trouble, Odysseus" cleverness defeats it and shows his true leadership qualities. For example, .
while fighting the horrifying Cyclops, Odysseus comes up with a foolproof plan to get .
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away from the Cyclops and once again continue to journey home. Odysseus says, "[ ] .
straight / forward they sprinted, lifted it, and rammed it / deep in his crater eye," (Homer 283-285). Using a clever idea of distracting and then shoving a spear in the Cyclops" eye, Odysseus gets himself and his men out of something that seems impossible to escape. When in danger, Odysseus" logic comes back to him giving him the strength of mind and cleverness he needs to lead his men.