Rather, he seems quite weak. He doesn’t have confidence in himself and wishes for death every time a hardship occurs. However, by the end of the book he has grown to become a more confident. From the first book, he shows signs of weakness as a leader. His first failure is when he is incapable of leading his own wife out of the city. He is supposed to lead many men and women to safety, but at this point he can’t even lead his the one person who is supposed to follow his every command loyally. After this he laments for bereavement regularly, not being able to look forward, but only wallow in pity. He has no confidence in himself, which is an essential trait to leadership, and always looks to the past. He appears to be too weak to be a leader, which the people notice. His incompetence as a leader reaches its apex in their second trip to Sicily, when the women raze his ships. This shows his incapability to keep even the women under control, who are supposed to be docile and domestic. Here he lacks both the power to put down anarchy and the support of the people. From here, only a few loyal citizens follow him to his promise land. Therefore, before their visit to the underworld, he reflects none of the traits of an effective leader. Although the divine intervention of Juno is blamed for his shortcomings up to this point, she only spurred the actions, for instance, the women acted of their own free …show more content…
He lacks in another trait of a good leader as well, control. He can’t control any of the women in his city, and fails horribly when he tries to take back power. Dionysius easily dupes him and can get him to do what he wants. This could show that he doesn’t have confidence in his own decisions, so he would take advice from even a man he refuses to acknowledge as a god. The Greeks viewed approval of the Gods as a trait of a hero or a good leader, so Penthius’ lack of favor with the gods, specifically Dionysius, could be the author’s way of showing his wanting in terms of leadership. In the end, his shortcomings literally results in his death, by means of being torn apart by his own