Odysseus Should Not Be Blamed In Homer's Odyssey

In Homer’s The Odyssey, the deaths of Odysseus’ men should not be blamed on Odysseus. He made one fatal mistake which costs six lives among his men, but that is all. The men are really at fault for their deaths. The men make several mistakes over the course of The Odyssey. The first of these took place very shortly after the Trojan War. After winning the war and sacking the city of Troy they sail away on their journey back home. After a couple of days they arrive at the land of the Cicones where they killed and plundered the people. After clearing out the land, Odysseus and his men feast until their stomachs’ are full. The men rathered to stay and eat more rather than obey Odysseus’s direct orders for them to leave. This was a bad mistake, for a Ciconian man survived and got word to the men feasting on their land. “Meanwhile, the Cicones cried out for the other Cicones who lived inland.” The Cicones inland attack Odysseus and his men and “half a dozen from each ship” are killed. There would be several ships left along with many men
if they would listen to Odysseus, and none of the great loss would have happened
The second mistake the men make comes soon after leaving Aeolus’s island. Odysseus and his men are so close to home that they can see it on the horizon. Odysseus, feeling he can rest so time will pass faster, drifts to sleep. His men on the other hand were jealous of Odysseus getting all the reward for everyone’s hard work, so they get the bag Aeolus gives to Odysseus and opens it. The bag which the men thought contained treasure, was actually a bag of wind. “The bad winds thus escape and blow the ships back to Aeolus’s island.” Odysseus asks Aeolus for another back, but refuses believing the gods have cursed their journey. This puts Odysseus and his men in the same situation as before: miles and miles away from home, and no idea on how to get there. If the men did not let their emotions of jealousy cloud their judgment and open the bag, they would be home long ago without any problems.
The third and last horrible mistake of the men takes place on Thrinacia.
This is Helios, the sun god’s island. Upon stopping on the island, the men are very hungry and are looking for food. Odysseus carefully warns them not to touch Helios’s cattle or they will pay dearly for it. While away from his men, Odysseus falls asleep in the shade of a tree. While he is asleep his men disobey him and kill Helios’s cattle for food. Afterward, Helios pleads to Zeus to make Odysseus’s men pay for harming and eating his cattle. Zeus will fulfill his wish and “throw down one white-hot bolt, and make splinters of their ship in the wide dark sea.” Following this, the men set to sea when the boat is indeed struck by lightning and kills everyone but Odysseus who floats alone for days until greeted by Calypso on Ogygia Island. If the men would have obeyed Odysseus, they would not be dead, and Odysseus would not have to stay with Calypso for seven
years.
This shows how in Homer’s The Odyssey, it is not Odysseus’s fault that all of his men die. Also, when Odysseus made his single mistake only 6 men died, but two of the three times his men made mistakes many men died. Whether it be half a dozen from each ship at the Cicones or the rest of the last ship after Helios’s plead to Zeus, the men are at fault. Odysseus was trying to be a good leader but they just wouldn’t listen to him, so it cost them their lives.