"Tactical Mistakes"

The title of this post is part of a quote from Everett that I particularly liked, and it pretty much sums up the leadership effectiveness of both Everett and Odysseus.  Even though they are both leaders, I didn't think they were very good leaders.  Odysseus winds up getting all of his men killed by not telling them everything they need to know, which strikes me as gross negligence, especially since he could have gotten home sooner if he had been more open with his crew when he had the bottle with the winds in it. 

To expose why I don't think Odysseus, and to a lesser extent, Everett, are good leaders, here's what I expect out of a good leader in a story.  I expect rousing speeches that make their followers follow the leader willingly even to the death.  Odysseus doesn't do that at all, though Everett does some, such as when he has to convince the rest of the Soggy Bottom Boys to help him win back his wife.  I also expect a leader to be able to trust his crew enough to take an administrative role and not just lead all of the expeditions.  I can't think of any times off the top of my head where Odysseus tells a group of his men to go do something aside from that one island with the lotus eaters.  Everett doesn't really get that opportunity because he never has more than three people working with him. 

Odysseus is more concerned with personal glory than keeping his men alive.  It kind of reminds me of a quote from Napoleon that went something along the lines of "I have thirty thousand lives to spend."  It shows a callous disregard for the lives of his troops, Odysseus also shows by keeping his crew in the dark about various very important things (Scylla, the wind thing, THE SUN GOD'S CATTLE).  This obsession with glory would make more sense for a solitary hero.  Which is pretty much what Odysseus becomes after he gets all his crew killed.  But it doesn't make for a very admirable leader.

Everett is also more focused on personal gain, though it makes more sense in the historical context.  He doesn't have any sort of pre-existing military leadership role that we expect him to fill.  I personally found the word 'outfit' telling when Pete asks "Who made you the leader of this outfit?"  Calling it an outfit really fits for the size and circumstances of the group.

As a counterexample, I thought I would mention Prophet from the Crysis series, particularly his "we were all human" speech in the third game, but then I remembered that he, like Odysseus, doesn't tell his team everything they need to know in the first game, which results in two of the five members of Raptor team being killed.  Still, the "we were all human" speech is a good example of the type of rousing speech  I was expecting from Odysseus the leader of men.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqEBZoKJlRg

Swords on Backs

One of the things that jumped out at me as we've been reading the Odyssey is that almost every time swords have been mentioned, they get strapped to someone's back. Examples at 2.3 (Telemachus), 4.308 (Menelaus), 8.416 (Odysseus).  I ran across a video about back sheaths a while ago that raised some interesting points.  There are definitely benefits to a back sheath, since it doesn't get in the way of running, it doesn't drag on the ground if you are crawling, and with sufficiently low-backed chairs, it doesn't get in the way of sitting down.  This is amazingly practical for any sort of adventurer, right?  The big problem with back sheaths is that drawing the sword can be difficult, and re-sheathing is even worse.  Nobody wants to stab themselves in the back. 

The video that I found presented various solutions that people have come up with, and the person had their own unusual solution to the problem.  One of the solutions he showed was a sheath that was rigid and had part of the sheath cut out so that the sword only had to be pulled out a little before it could be brought over the wielder's shoulder while still covering the sharp edges while in the sheath.  The person in the video had a different solution, which was to cut out part of the side of the sheath, which he demonstrates several times throughout the video. 

This topic is of particular interest to me because I've watched several movies (Lord of the Rings comes to mind) and played many videogames that feature back sheaths for their heroes.  In The Lord of the Rings, Legolas has a pair of long knives in sheaths next to his quiver on his back (there are a couple of problems with back quivers, but that is a rant for some other time), sidestepping the problem of having to pull the blade out really far by just having a shorter blade.  In Metal Gear Rising, Raiden has a sheath that actually moves around to facilitate drawing his sword.  In Warframe, almost all of the melee weapons have no sheath and are just attached to the back with their edges exposed.  All of these examples are badass heroes that use back sheaths.

Back to the Odyssey, since that's what we're reading in class.  Odysseus also straps swords to his back as evidenced in book 8, but there is one case where he notably breaks this trend.  In 10.439-40, Odysseus says "At that, I thought of drawing my long sword/from by my sturdy thigh, to cut his head off".  This implies that Odysseus is wearing his sword in a hip sheath like what we're used to seeing, which is different from the previous three times sword sheath positioning has been mentioned.  I wonder if this was an oversight in translation, or if Greeks used back sheaths for carrying swords around and a hip sheath when they anticipated using a sword.  That would makes sense given the added difficulty of drawing and sheathing a sword behind yourself.  If this is the case, carrying your sword on your back could be a sign that you don't intend to use it, which makes you seem more civilized.  I would have to do more research on how Greek soldiers carried their various weapons.

Video that I referenced for those who want it: