Professors from the School of Philosophy and Letters publish throughout the summer in the series "Líderes en la ficción" (Leaders in Fiction), published by the newspaper Expansión. Each week, they bring us the virtues of different literary characters.

We do not know Ulysses for his great strength and courage, but because in him we see reflected the story of any human being. Ulysses cries, has ambition, suffers and wants to return home. It is easy for us to empathize with him because, despite his courage, we see him as weak and capable of great mistakes. In the history of culture, the figure of Ulysses has often been treated as an example of virtue and prudence. No doubt throughout the Homeric poem we see his ability to take precautions in the face of danger, to use his wit to deceive enemies and to tell stories that captivate his listeners. Now, being a witty person is not the same as being prudent. If we empathize with him, it is precisely because we see in his story an example of learning and conquering prudence through mistakes.

It is often pointed out that Ulysses brought about a decisive change in Education in Greece. Unlike the Iliad, where the heroes are warriors ready to do anything for their own glory and the honor of their land - and for this they will be ready to use violence to its ultimate consequences - the Odyssey presents a new ideal: that of the cunning man who uses his intelligence to overcome dangers and return to his homeland. Here a decisive turn in the values of Hellenic culture takes place: it is no longer a question of being the strongest, but the most cunning. It was not in vain that the Greeks managed to develop a strange form of civilization organized in city-states that managed to resist the Persians thanks to ingenuity: making good use of resources, achieving alliances, dominating the terrain.

In the collective imagination, the figure of Ulysses has remained as that of a prudent man, but already in classical Athens there were dissenting voices against this vision. Plato himself criticizes the Homeric poems for presenting Ulysses as a lying character, a bad example for young people. However, perhaps Ulysses is such a fascinating figure for all times precisely because he is not a hero invested with great strength and power and because he is a weak man like us, on his way to his homeland, and we also see throughout the Odyssey a process of learning staff. The daring and courageous hero, a man of multiform wit, who believes he can outwit the gods, will have to suffer much to return home. Above all, he will have to use his intelligence not only to deceive, but to bring order and discover what is really worthwhile.

After so many trips around the Mediterranean, Ulysses has learned to be quiet. He has learned to listen. He has learned that what is valuable in life is not things, but people. For that he has had to lose all his companions and has wept for long years on the island of Calypso, in sight of the sea, far from Ithaca. When he finally sets foot in his home, we no longer see the boastful Ulysses who mocks the Cyclops at the risk of losing his own life, we no longer have a young man eager for new experiences and riches, now Ulysses has learned to value what is really important in his life (his family, his home) and knows that he has to be quiet and wait, not be carried away by his impulses of revenge.

Ulysses is above all a generator of stories, of tales. His famous voyages -perhaps the best known part of the Odyssey- are still a fantastic tale, who knows if it was invented to captivate the Phaeacians, who will transport him home. Almost more credible is the story he tells the old swineherd Eumaeus when he arrives in Ithaca, when, disguised as a Cretan, he says that it was the desire for riches that led him to Egypt after the Trojan War, and that his misdeeds led him to end up working as a slave. Does this not sound much more credible than the confrontation with a Cyclops, the descent to the place of the dead and the wonderful song of the sirens? Be that as it may, in any case, Ulysses is capable of generating convincing stories, so that the interlocutors place their trust in him. We are thus faced with the quality of every good leader: the ability to generate stories. And this is where Ulysses is especially prudent with the information he reveals. Ulysses knows what he has to tell, and he knows the desires for stories that nestle in people's hearts. This is where we see his quality as a leader: we would go to the ends of the earth with him, certain that we are embarking on a worthwhile adventure.

Beyond all the resources of this man of multiform ingenuity, what we see in the Odyssey is a finding what is truly important in life and the use of effort, ingenuity and the financial aid of the gods to achieve it. In the end Ulysses is prudent because he is able to enter Ithaca humiliated, disguised as a beggar, and endure the scorn of the suitors. Ulysses has not always been prudent, but he has finally gained experience, perhaps the essence of prudence: knowing how to interpret the facts of life in their proper measure. Thus he returns home tired, as Konstantino Kavafis says in his poem:

Ithaca gave you such a beautiful journey.
Without her you would not have set out on your journey.
But she no longer has anything to give you.
Though you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.
So, wise as you have become, with so much experience,
you will now understand what Ithaca means.