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The Negative Consequences Of Hunger In Homer's The Odyssey

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Everyone has been hungry at some point in time. Hunger can make people do anything to satisfy that hunger even if there are negative consequences. Odysseus’s men in The Odyssey had run out of food. Odysseus’s men should eat the cattle that belong to Helios, the sun god, because of starving, drowning, and sacrificing. The men had depleted their food supply. The men had a large food supply; at least they thought they did. They had fished, and had many fish. They killed birds. The men were tired of hunting for food and were tired of eating the same things over and over again. One mate thought that drowning was better than starving; some men agreed. Some men rather drown than starve. They knew drowning was horrific, but they thought that drowning was possibly less painful than starvation. …show more content…

The men thought that if they killed the cattle it would be fine. However, to Helios, that was not fine. Helios had warned people not to kill his cattle. The men wanted to kill and eat the cattle because they thought they could sacrifice to the sun god at home. The men should not kill the cattle for many reason. The men were starving, but they still should not kill the cattle. They had promised not to kill the cattle. The captain, Odysseus, had forewarned them not to eat the cattle. Also, the men promised not to eat the cattle considering it would offend Helios. Therefore, the men had reasons they wanted to eat the cattle, but they also had reasons not to. Odysseus knew his men were hungry, yet they had made promises to not eat the cattle. One of the ship mates made a speech to even try and get Odysseus to let them kill the cattle. Odysseus knew better than to offend the sun god like that. However, the men came up with reasons that would possibly solve their problems if they were to eat the cattle. But, would their reasoning behind eating the cattle work for Helios, the sun

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