Odysseus' Many Mistakes

In Robert Fitzgerald's translation of The Odyssey, Odysseus leads his men through the unthinkable, and successfully gets them out of harms way because he utilizes his ability to formulate plans, and carry them out quickly and effectively. Throughout the epic, Odysseus makes numerous decisions that affect him and his men, these decisions have come to impact their journey home. In doing this, he has made several mistakes that Odysseus later learns from in order to …

…have cost them their lives. This is true in the instances of The Cyclops, and the Cattle of the Sun God. The lesson that he learns from all of these instances, is that he needs to think before he makes an action. These instances would clearly not have become a danger to Odysseus and his men, had he thought before he acted. Work Cited homer "Odyssey." Adventures in Reading. Trans. Robert Fitzgerald. Florida: tiarcourt, 1989. 599 - 653