Thrinakia

Odysseus and his men are just out of the Scylla and Charybdis situation, and they see the island of Thrinakia. Odysseus wants to just pass it, but  his crew wants to stop and sleep. Odysseus thinks this is a bad idea, but he agrees as long as his crew swears to not touch the sheep or cattle on the island. The whole crew swore they wouldn't, so they stayed there. The next morning they tried to go off to sea again, but a strong wind was blowing against them so they couldn't leave. The storm that blew south lasted for a whole month, and Odysseus and his men couldn't leave for a whole month. Circe had given them food, so they were alright until that food supply started to diminish. They were forced to catch fish and snare birds, but this never truly satisfied them, so soon the crew members wanted more. Odysseus went out alone to pray to the gods, and while he was out Eurylochus spoke to the crew members and suggested that they take some oxen and sacrifice some to the gods because "it is better to be drowned than to die of hunger." (Russel 212) The whole crew agreed, so they went out and got oxen to both eat and sacrifice. The sun god woe up the next morning and found that some of his sacred herds had been sacrificed and eaten, and called upon the council of the gods to punish Odysseus and his crew for their mistake. The sun god threatened to not shine upon the earth anymore unless they payed with their lives for what they had done. Zeus promised to break their ship apart with one of his thunderbolts. Odysseus was angry with the crew for what they had done, but there was nothing he could do, for the oxen were already roasting. the crew gorged themselves for six days and on the seventh day, the wind stopped blowing southward, and they set sail. For a little while, all was fine, but soon the skies darkened and a thunderbolt came out of the sky, which destroyed the ship. Odysseus was left in the water and bound together the remains of the mast and any other large pieces left. 

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