Harris 1

Treyouna Harris
10/30/13
3rd hour
The Deceiving Leader
A hero is what they call it; a liar is how some see it. In the epic The Odyssey By Homer , A
man named Odysseus is a hero who has his flaws. His first muddle is with the cyclops, then with the
Wind God, Aeolus and last with the Cattle of the Sun God, Helios.
To begin with, after Odysseus deceived the Cyclops with a secret identity of Nohbdy, he got a
little worked up, brash, and arrogant. He starts by telling the Cyclops O cyclops would you feast on
my companions? Puny am I, in a cavemans hands? Howd you like the beating that we gave you, you
damned cannibal. Eater of guest under your roof! Zeus and the gods have paid you! His crew then
cautioned him to let the cyclops be, but Odysseus didnt listen. As a pacesetter, his crew will follow
after him, so thats probably why his crew did not listen to him any other time. Thus, he told the Cyclops
a eerie thing. Odysseus raider of cities, took your eye. Laertes son whose homes on Ithaca This was
shortsighted of odysseus because now the cyclops knew what his name was. This also caused him to be
cursed, as well as his crew. Odysseus showed great superintendency getting free from the Cyclops, but
leaving caused horrible navigation problems. This made him senile, thoughtless, and naive.
Second, Odysseus kept to himself many times. When Odysseus traveled to the wind gods
island, Aeolus, to collect the bag of wind. The bag of wind held all the storms and hurricanes that would
come, which kept them storm free for many nights. He did not tell his crew about this bag of wind, he
just told them DO NOT OPEN, this showed that Odysseus didnt trust his crew for the responsibility
of the bag, but they didnt trust him, because his crew thought there was gold inside the bag. Thinking
Harris 2

Odysseus were keeping treasure from them they opened the bag which set them on a long journey right
back to Aeolus. To avoid this, he shouldve just told them what inside the bag. Therefore, he is
irresponsible, untrustworthy, and abhorrent.
Lastly, Odysseus and his crew later traveled to the island of the cattle of the sun god, where
Odysseus met the god Helios. Like in the epic, Helios loves his cattle, so they couldnt touch them, eat
them, or even leer at them. Without food the men began to forebear, while odysseus was on the other
side of the island and beseeched to the gods, they had put him to sleep. Eurylochus had spout, that they
might as well eat the cattle and be killed by the gods as die of starvation, and claimed that they would
offer sacrifices and treasure to mollify the gods if they returned alive to Ithaca. So his men gorged down
the cattle and parished soon after. Odysseus blamed the gods for putting him in a trance.I blame him, for
migrating to the other side of the island. Leaving his crew was an amiss choice, and should have noticed
that his crew does not hang on words very well. Thence, he sailed away by himself.
All in All, Odysseus was treacherous in this outing. He deluded his crew, crudely alerted the
cyclops, and nonchalantly left his starving crew on the flipside of the island. Odysseus had many more
screw ups, but that didnt phase his crew, they loved him. He might be a hero to them but in others
eyes, they see a deceiving leader. A hero is what they call it; a liar is how some see it.