Cattle of Helios

King Odysseus and his fellow Achaeans have just made port in a rocky inlet of Trinacria, the island of Helios, the Sun God. Odysseus desires to avoid Trinacria in accordance with the advice given to him by Circe of Aeaea, but his crew yearns to rest, feast, and mourn the recent loss of shipmates. Odysseus agrees under the conditions that they only feast on the farewell food given by Circe, and under no circumstances are they to slaughter the cattle of Helios. The men swear their oaths, set camp, and feast. A month goes by as the men are confined to the island by torturously unfavorable winds. With rations low, hunger begins to gnaw on their integrity...

I watch as the men grow weaker by the day, and find myself thankful for their enduring loyalty and grit during these trying times. The wails of hunger, missing of wives, and growing despair drives me out of our encampment. I wander up the hill to pray to the Gods that they might soothe our affairs and show us the way home. As I wearily walk westward across the grassy expanse of the island I feel the rays of Helios sap the vigor from my bones. I begin to question all that the Immortals have put me through. I see not their plan, nor how much longer we can survive on this desolate island. After a while, I collapse at the foot of a small, sheltered pond to wash and drink from the surprisingly crisp waters. Resting my head on a tuft of soft grass, I shutter my eyes.

I envision Penelope and the day of my return to Ithaca. I see her standing afar in the grassy, windswept heartland of the island. As I rise up and stumble towards her glistening figure I hear her voice praising my advance. I quicken my pace, but her figure doesn't draw nearer. I begin to run. As her image continues to retract she floats off the rocky edge of the island. Hand outstretched, she beckons me to step from the brink. I feel a tug on the rear of my tunic and whirl around to see the goddess Athena. "Odysseus, how can you be so easily deceived? You must return to the place from which you drank and lie down on the tuft of grass from which you rose, if you truly wish to see her," says Athena. To a saddened Penelope, I utter a familiar vow of speedy return before racing back to the pond. I lie down once more, and shuttering my eyes, my mind escapes this deceitful eclipse.

I abruptly awake and look to the pond's edge with foggy eyes. There I see what I feared. The Kobaloi tracks fresh in the soft clay, and the water with its iridescent tint. Poisoned by the Kobaloi and asleep for some time, I fear what my men might have done in my absence. I run back to the encampment and my heart drops before my arrival, as I see the smokey pillar and smell the savory scent of roast...

Author's Note: Trinacria is an ancient name for the modern-day island of Sicily, an Italian region just off the southern boot-tip of Italy. This short story, centered around Odysseus' dream, veers from the plot in book XII of the Odyssey, The Cattle of the Sun. In Fagles translation, Odysseus and his men encounter the same situation with low rations, severe winds, etc., but it is only told that Odysseus takes a short walk and a nap. My story picks up with events that might have occurred while he was on his walk, as well as a more entertaining reason for why he fell into such a "sweet, sound sleep" as Fagles describes.

Today, many people think of Apollo as the God of Light, but in Homeric times this was not the case. It wasn't until Hellenistic times that Apollo (God of oracles, healing, archery, music, arts, and knowledge) came to be associated with sunlight. Helios, God of the Sun, was a child of the Titans Hyperion and Theia. Hyperion, brother of Cronus(Kronos), was one of the Titan children of Gaia(Earth) and Uranus(Sky). To come full circle, I'll note that Cronus seized power from his father and the other primordial deities, allowing him and his Titan siblings to rule the cosmos. Then, the children of the Titans, the Olympians (spearheaded by Zeus) overthrew the Titans as the ruling Gods.

header image source, Odysseus sleeping

Kobaloi image source