Oddyseus cannot learn his lesson

In the books of the Odyssey that we have already read, we have seen three examples of Odysseus leading himself and his crew into preventable danger because he assumes that the rules of Greek hospitality will be followed by everyone. The first time that he does this is when he stays in the Polyphemus' cave. While I can understand that at this point Odysseus has almost always been welcomed by his hosts, and I don't blame him for trusting the Cyclops to be friendly, I still think that he should have known not to stay in the cave. Odysseus basically invites himself in, eats the Cyclops's cheese, makes a fire and expects his host to be pleased that he has a guest. I don't know if this was normal behavior in ancient Greece, but I would assume that it would break the trust bond between guest and host.


In book 11, Odysseus again leads his crew into an enemy's hands because he assumes that they will be friendly. This time he seems to know that something will go wrong, for he anchors his
ship outside of the harbor. Even ignoring the fact that he basically repeats the same mistake that he made with Polyphemus, the event is still his fault. If Odysseus had simply told his crew that he felt that something was wrong, they probably would have at least taken the same precautions with their boats as Odysseus had with his. Some people in class argue that he may have tried, but they didn't listen. However, there is no evidence in Odysseus' tale that he warned the other boats, and he doesn't seem like the kind of storyteller that would leave out a boast that he had told them it would happen.


Finally, Odysseus leads his crew onto Circe's island and again takes them into danger. He definitely knows that this undertaking is dangerous, and this feeling even spreads to the men. He splits them into two groups and makes them draw straws to see who will get the dangerous job. The men part ways crying. There appears to be no reason that Odysseus needs to get to Circe; his narration does not mention hunger or lack of transportation. Therefore, he is putting his crew in danger for no apparent reason.