Leaders are the basis of modern day society. A leader is necessary to keep the citizens in order, and make sure they pertain to the rules. However what happens when there is no leader? Then there is mass chaos, no one is in charge and thus the average citizen is allowed to do anything that they want. Homer displays this in The Odyssey, where the breakdown of society is caused by the loss of a leader, and that causes chaos, aggression, and selfishness from the characters.
Homer shows the loss of a leader creates a breakdown of society, by comparing and contrasting the two cities of Sparta and Ithaca. As seen on Ithaca, without a leader the entire island has gone into mass chaos, with suitors overrunning the island trying to become king, and because Telemachus is to young to try and fight all of the suitors. He is forced to deal with the chaos that the hundreds of suitors bring. Even Athena the goddess of planning and structure sees the need for a real leader in Ithaca “bitterly you need Odysseus” (l.162) However, Sparta who has a leader is a thriving society. This is seen when the king Menelaus, and his wife invite Telemachus into the palace. We see that Sparta has never been in a better place. From the feast that is partaking, to the dancing citizens. It is shown to us by Homer that when a leader leaves and never returns, the government and structure is lost, and that government is replaced with an overall state of chaos. However when there is a leader in place, it is shown that the civilization will thrive and flourish.
Along with the loss of a leader, aggression is created. The Suitors are used as the first example of aggression, when they get word that Telemachus is coming back from Sparta with the news that Odysseus is ...
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...l.107) for her thought to be dead husband. However the suitors soon learn that she plans to never finish the shroud so that she will never have to marry any of the suitors. The suitors are able to be so selfish because there is no leader to tell them otherwise. Without a leader the society crumbles into the making of selfish people, who only care about what they want and how they can obtain it.
Society is sometimes thought of as a clock, everything and everyone has an order and a place. Everything also has to work in perfect harmony and fit in exactly with each and every piece. However when one piece is out of order, or one part is lost, the clock won’t work anymore. When you take away the leader in society, it is like taking the hands off of a clock. This is what happens to Ithaca without a leader the island falls into a downward spiral of chaos and disaster.
In Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, Odysseus fails as a leader by prioritizing his reputation over his crew’s safety after defeating the cyclops Polyphemus. In the story, Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, travels to Troy to fight against the Trojans. On his journey back to Ithaca, a string of damaging incidents lead him to a mysterious island, which he later discovers is inhabited by the murderous cyclops Polyphemus. His crew manages to escape the cyclops, but not before Polyphemus kills several of Odysseus’s crew. Odysseus escapes and could have sailed away peacefully, but he calls out to Polyphemus to suggest that “if anyone, any mortal man, asks you how you got your eye put out, tell him that Odysseus the marauder did it,” (IX, 500-502). This prompts Polyphemus to lob a rock, nearly destroying Odysseus's ship. It is odd that this was
According to Plato, leaders are those who ascend to a higher level of good and are then able to empathize with the people. Similarly Lao-tzu states “If you want to govern the people, you must place yourself below them. If you want to lead the people, you must learn to follow them” (Lao-tzu 54). After having been enlightened, leaders descend to the level of the subjects’ awareness and are able to see clearly, and thus govern better. In Plato’s view, rulers must experience the reality of what the people experience, “they must be made to descend again among the prisoners in the den, and partake of their labors and
What is a leader? According to the dictionary a leader is a "person who leads or commands a group, organization, or country." (Merriam Webster) Though that may be what the term leader is defined by, one would assume that it takes much more to be considered a "good" one. A leader, is in many cases the voice of the people, he is the one whom everyone looks to in a time of panic, the one whom the people entrust to make the hard decisions and the one whom is supposed to value his constituents wants and need. Unfortunately most leaders fall short of accomplishing the things they set out to do, "as principal chief during the 1830s John Ross faced the most critical period in Cherokee History, and somehow
What is a leader? A leader is someone who takes command and leads an organization or group to success. Anyone can be a leader but in order to become a great leader you have to have to possess certain characteristics. I will be using Odysseus from the Odyssey isas an example of a leader who has suitable characteristics. You also have to know what harmful characteristics a leader may possess to determine if they are good leaders or not.
In choosing modern leaders, one can take a lesson from the Greeks in how a person’s character can affect his leadership abilities and his constituents. Even positive traits without self-control can lead to devastating ends. Hesiod’s words hold true through the ages,
A leader is someone who leads or commands a group, organization, or country, in Antigone Creon is a good leader. Creon leads the city of Thebes as a ruler, he is very powerful as a leader and takes his job seriously, while some of the decisions he made were not the best he was a good leader because of his qualities. Creon had punishments for the laws that were broken and Creon didn't want the laws that he made broken. Creon also understands that to be a good leader he had to prove himeself and there will always be setbacks in leadership that cause you too need a backbone. You can’t just walk into a country as a leader and tell everyone what to do and they would trust you. Finally Creon had a lot of pride and while this pride is for himself it also helps the county and
John C. Maxwell once wrote, “Leadership is the power of one harnessing the power of many.” Rousseau, in The Social Contract Theory writes that leadership is necessary to create law. A leader must have the ability to provide for all, no matter the case. Thus, they must have the “power of many” in order to understand the will of the people. A population cannot create laws for itself without guidance from some higher power. An effective leader must be able to harness the power of many in order to create effective laws and rules for the collective good.
In The Odyssey, Homer, or more so, the characters, often referred to Odysseus as the ‘Great Odysseus’. In the text, it is obvious to see that Odysseus demonstrates arrogance, charisma, over-confidence, and pride. Odysseus and his m...
The reader is shown that a leader can be both victorious and legendary with faults, through Odysseus's own. Homer also displays very clearly vicariously through Odysseus's actions that a hero is someone who is able to display substantial amounts of bravery and cunning. We see how Odysseus proves himself as a leader by being successful in his goal. Homer presents the reader with the ideal leader, the iconic figure of Odysseus, to show the values of a
What is a leader? Who are chosen to be leader, and why are they chosen? What set these certain individuals aside from everyone else? A leader is someone who can encourage even those with feeble hearts, insecure souls and self-doubting minds. A leader takes not only their vision but everyone’s vision and create one beautiful creation that is seen throughout the world. My experiences with leadership range from the worst to the best. Once holding a great leadership position myself, I can testify the benefits of great leadership and the disadvantages of horrible leadership. Through my experience with great leadership and the effects on the people, it seemed to the naked eye that everyone was thinking the same thing at the same time. In actually it was the leader uniting the members together on one common chord to produce a sound that would remain in the souls. A leader is someone who not only leads, but also encourages people to do their best, share a collectively common idea or passion with a group, and challenge the process of a traditional style.
Leaders have responsibilities to their people; a responsibility to protect and to nurture them. Leaders can reject their citizens needs because they believe that their wants are more important end up destroying the very society they rule. As shown in the novel Lord of the Flies when Jack rejects his responsibility of nurturing and giving the boys a home because he believes his lust for power, which provides him with a sense of security, is more important than the needs of the boys for affection and protection, allowing him to use the boys as objects to accomplish his own desires. This eventually leads to the destruction of society.
In Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey, the main theme is the reunification of the family, as Odysseus struggles to return home and rejoin his wife and son. Throughout the Odyssey, we are shown examples of families: good ones that prosper and bad ones that do not. As Telemakhos struggles to become a man and Odysseus struggles homeward, the concept of healthy family life is stressed. At the end, when all conflicts are resolved and Odysseus is reunited with wife and son, the lesson that a united family can overcome any obstacles is shown and is one that today's families should heed.
... there has always been a leader to guide the people throughout their hardships. This leader can be anything from a tribal leader to the president of a country. Society in its modernity crumbles without anyone to lead it. Having a wise and just leader in my opinion is better than having none.
For Plato, like many Greeks of his day, the individual was subordinate to the state. Political participation was paramount, so when he discusses leadership, he is talking about leadership of the State. Because society is more im...
Leadership is something that is really needed by all of the individual as well as to the organizations. The word leader has been derived from the leadership, which means a person that leads towards something so that the follower could achieve the goals. There are a number of the theories and the studies that have explored the importance of the leaders to the organization. The nations on the other side are also in need of someone who could lead them toward getting the goals. Leaders have the visions that are necessary for achieving the set destination. There is no place of the world where there is no need of leaders. It will be justified to say that due to leaders the hard and the difficult goals become simpler and easier to achieve. (Haslam, Reicher, & Platow, 2015)