Next they reached the island of the Sun.Odysseus wanted to avoid the island altogether, but Eurylochus insisted that the crew needed rest. Odysseus made the men swear an oath not to eat any cattle, but they were trapped on the island for a month by an inopportune wind; eventually their stores ran out and the men began to starve. One day Odysseus fell asleep, and Eurylochus convinced the men to eat the Cattle of the Sun: it's better to die at sea from the wrath of the gods, he said, than to die of hunger. Odysseus woke up to find that the men had broken their oaths and killed some cattle.The roles of Odysseus and Eurylochus are reversed. On Circe's island, Eurylochus had been the sensible one and Odysseus had been the risk-taker. The sun god Helios angrily asked Zeus and the other gods to punish Odysseus's crew for killing his cattle, and Zeus complied. Strange things began to happen to the cattle that had been killed: they bellowed and moved. But the men continue to feast for six more days before sailing away. As soon as they were out at sea Zeus sent down a storm that destroyed the ship and killed everyone aboard except Odysseus.
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