"Listen to me, my comrades, brothers in hardship.
All ways of dying are hateful to us poor mortals,
true, but to die of hunger, starve to death –
that’s the worst of all. So up with you now,
let’s drive off the pick of Helios’ sleek herds,
slaughter them to the gods who rule the skies up there.
If we ever make it home to Ithaca, native ground,
erect at once a glorious temple to the Sungod,
line the walls with hoards of dazzling gifts!
But if the Sun, inflamed for his longhorn cattle,
means to wreck our ship and the other gods pitch in –
I’d rather die at sea, with one deep gulp of death,
than die by inches on this desolate island here!"
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 12, lines 366-378. A storm has trapped Odysseus’ and his crew on Thrinacia for a month, the island where sun god Helios keeps his cattle. Odysseus’ men are hungry and their master is sleeping. So Eurylochus suggests to the men that they should eat Helios’ cattle – a fatal decision for them. This is despite numerous warnings by Odysseus. This passage foreshadows that all of the men – with the exception of Odysseus – will die at sea.