What qualities should the next president of the United States of America have in order to be a successful leader? In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus demonstrates extraordinary leadership qualities that might also be good qualities for our next President. Odysseus' traits as a leader can be summed up with the eight principles of Greek society. These eight principles are: humanism, pursuit of excellence, the practice of moderation, self-knowledge, rationalism, restless curiosity, love of freedom, and individualism. Odysseus lived by all of these principles to a certain extent. I will discuss some of these principles, how each helped Odysseus to be such an excellent leader, and how each could help our next President to be a magnificent leader.

The first principle, and maybe the most important to the Greeks, is humanism. Humanism refers to thinking in the best interest of man. Odysseus expressed humanism when he was thinking in the...