Odysseus As An Effective Leader

Odysseus portrays himself as a leader who is courageous, confident, good hearted and uses his intellect to get himself out of tough situations. Through his various adventures he demonstrated these qualities, like the time the white goddess seen Odysseus in trouble and said to him “take off your clothes and abandon your raft” (345). He did not listen because in the past the gods have schemed against him before and the outcome did not turn out well. Therefore he used what he knew about their ways and decided that taking his own route was the best way to go. Odysseus always came off as a good person, when he ran into Nausicaa she said to him “stranger, you do not seem to be a bad man” (190), not even knowing him she made the assumption that he
isn’t a bad person. Nausicaa helped Odysseus by telling him what to do to fix his problem. He went to her parents as she directed and asked for their help. It takes a fearless and confident person to be bold enough to ask people for help while in a place they are not familiar with. After getting help from Nausicaa parents he went on and continued his journey. Odysseus later on ran into another issue where he had to use his cleverness to get out of the situation. Him and his shipmates were stuck in a cave with a cyclops and Odysseus came up with a plan to get them out by giving the Cyclops some fine wine. The plan was working to because the cyclops said “Be a pal and give me another drink” (350). Odysseus gave him another drink and the cyclops passed out and they escaped. He used his keenness to outsmart the cyclops and got them all out the cave safely. Odysseus was always thinking on his feet and using what he knew to his advantage.