The Odyssey is the story of a man and his crew returning home after the Trojan War. The entire journey took ten years in total. The trip would have been much shorter, but because of all the stops it took longer. “For too much rest becomes suffering” (Homer 41). No matter what it took, Odysseus was determined to return home to his wife, his newborn baby, and his country Ithaca. Throughout Odysseus' ten-year journey, he went through a lot. To return home to his wife and child, he must demonstrate self-control, and that is what he has. On their first stop with the Lotus Eaters, Ulysses must gather his crew. The Lotus Eaters drugged them. The way he rounds them up is to force them back onto the ships. This requires a lot of self-control, because it's not easy to bring a group of junkies back on twelve ships. If he hadn't had self-control, they all would have lost their memories and never returned home. It showed that he was a good captain, and to be a good captain you have to have self-control. During another stop, with the giant man eating Cyclops; he had to...