Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Both Tiresias and Circe forbid harming the cattle and sheep of Helios on Thrinacia; if they are touched, the ship and crew perish, and Odysseus returns late and alone. Odysseus wants to sail past; Eurylochus sways the exhausted men to land. Winds pin them for a month; stores fail. While Odysseus goes inland to pray and falls asleep, Eurylochus urges slaughter: they will build a temple to Helios if they reach Ithaca, or drown quickly rather than starve. They kill the best cattle; the flayed hides crawl and the meat bellows on the spits—omens of sacrilege. Lampetie tells Helios; he demands vengeance from Zeus or will shine in Hades. When they sail, Zeus splinters the ship with a thunderbolt; all drown but Odysseus. The episode fulfills the nekyia’s prophecy and ends the crew: nostos survives only as solitary suffering.