Odysseus and Aeneas: A classical perspective on leadership

Among the standards by which leaders may be assessed are their willingness to elevate public responsibility over personal preferences, the attention they pay to the need to cultivate leadership among subordinates, and their reflectiveness about leadership. In this essay, Odysseus, as portrayed in the Iliad and Odyssey, and Aeneas, as portrayed in the Iliad and the Aeneid, are compared according to how well they performed, measured by these standards, as leaders. Each was charged, after the Trojan War ended, to take hundreds of people home. Aeneas performed well, Odysseus poorly.