Whose cattle did Odysseus' men kill?

Answer 1

After Odysseus' crew kill and eat the golden cattle, they sacrifice some of them to the gods, to hopefully assuage them; however, this does them no good.

Helios tells Zeus of the sacrilege. Eventually the sailors, with Odysseus, find favourable winds and leave the island, and Zeus promptly splits the ships with lightning bolts, sinking all their ships. Everyone dies except for Odysseus who washes up on Calypso's shores.

In Odyssey 12, Odysseus and his men land on the island of Thrinacia, where the sun god kept a special herd of cattle. Odysseus warned his crew not to harm the sun god's cattle. Unfortunately, adverse weather conditions prevented Odysseus and his men from leaving the island. The longer they remained on the island, the more dissatisfied Odysseus' men became with the food that they had. Ultimately, the temptation to kill and eat some of Helios' cattle became too great and, while Odysseus slept, his men slaughtered and feasted on some of the cattle.

This proved to be deadly mistake. When Helios found out about this, he complained to Zeus. After Odysseus and his men were finally able to leave Thrinacia, Zeus struck their ship with a terrible storm:

"Zeus anchored a black cloud above our hollow ship, and the waves beneath were dark. She had not run on for long before there came a howling gale, a tempest out of the west, and the first squall snapped both our forestays, so that the mast toppled backwards and the rigging fell into the hold, while the tip of the mast hitting the stern struck the steersman's skull and crushed the bones."

The ship was destroyed and all of Odysseus' remaining men died. Odysseus himself managed to float along on remnants of the ship. Eventually, he washed ashore on Calypso's island.

Answer 2

Basically, they were starving. Normally, when you starve, you find something to eat. In this case, there was a bunch of cattle. Put two and two together.

Answer 3

They kill and eat the cattle of Helios, god of the sun.

Answer 4

Odysseus's crewmen kill the cattle of Helios, god of the sun.

Answer 5

Hyperion, the titan.