The Odyssey: Odysseus Learns Patience, The Sanctity Of Life, And Humility In Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus learns patience, the sanctity of life, and humility on his seven year journey back to his homeland. Odysseus handles every situations placed before him in a more mature and wiser manner than before. It is not until the end of the epic that Odysseus is seen in an enlightened state, and when it is realized that his success on his journey is attributed to his realizations of life and how it should be lived. When Odysseus left Troy he never expected it to take seven long years to return home.