The modern day office makes multiple demands on its leadership, one of which is an acceptance of a life spent in constant flux. Check out the recruitment advertisements and chances are you will find them asking for CEOs who can travel without pause; there is even a name for them, ‘road warriors’. Look at our political leadership and no prizes for guessing that the man who wields the baton is the one who earns the most air miles.
But is this a modern day malaise,or an archetype set by heroes of the ancient world? The travelling hero, Odysseus, to whom Homer dedicated an epic and who has for long captured the imagination of poets and writers, has much in common with his 21st century compatriots.
Odysseus engineered the great victory against the Trojans but failed to bring his men home. Hewas a man never at rest. Having waged a long and arduous battle that lasted 10 years, he took 10 more to get home to Ithaca, where his wife and son were waiting for him. And then, it is believed, such was his wanderlust, that he travelled once more.
There is more to Odysseus than his incessant travel, however. He is also known for his great cunning. Odysseus was a smooth-tongued, master strategist. He is credited with thinking upthe wooden horse, which finally brought down the Trojans. Homer saw him as a smooth spinner of tales, someone who could win a war by trickery rather than valour. For philosophers, Homer’s hero was a complex and calculating character and many later writers even imagined Odysseus as the son of Sisyphus (not Laertes as Homer said) who was punished for his penchant for trickery and is still rolling a rock up a hill in the underworld only to have it roll back again.
Odysseus’s adventures weredemanding; he lost all his men and nearly, his mind. But he survived, vanquishing his foes through deception and charm and getting out of difficult situations by just being foxy. His battle with the one-eyed giants is a case in point. On their way back home from Troy, Odysseus and his men land up on the island of the Cyclops or the one-eyed giants. Polyphemos (son of Poseidon, god of the oceans), is one such giant and Odysseus ransacks and plunders his cave. Polyphemos is furious and begins making a meal out of the raiders. Odysseus tricks him, plies him with strong wine, introduces himself asNobody and then lulls him into wine-induced slumber. While he is asleep, Odysseus drives a wooden stake into his single eye causing him to scream and thrash about. When the rest of the giants come to his rescue and ask him who is torturing him, poor Polyphemos says ‘Nobody’. And so they all leave him to his fate while Odysseus makes his escape with whatever is left of his men.
Smart, you think. Well, wait for what he does in Circe’s lair. The sorceress turns all men to swine but Odysseus escapes the ignominy and becomes her lover instead.
Odysseus is defined by his cunning and quick thinking skills, not commonly associated with warriors but considered indispensable on the resumes today. Contrast him with Achilles, who is the typical courageous battle veteran. His exploits are driven by rage;Homer called him swift footed and lion hearted—showing him to be faster and stronger than his rivals. But Odysseus, Homer called ‘a man of many resources’, ‘the great teller of tales’ and ‘the great tactician’. And the epithet used most often for Odysseus is ‘(the man) with most cunning’.
Odysseus was also vain (or foolish,if you are so inclined). He could not resist a pat on the back. After blindingPolyphemos, he foments trouble by yelling out his name just as he flees the shores of the island. Polyphemos relays this to his fatherPoseidon who wreaks vengeance upon Odysseus by killing his men and turning his ship way off course.
So who is the Odysseus of today? Look around carefully: do you recognise a silver-tongued orator, toiling night and day, travelling the world,taking credit for every victory? A mercurial leader who leaves hapless opponents furious and tongue-tied?
This article first appeared in the Business Standard (Mythic Mantra by Arundhuti Dasgupta) in September 2015
