The Cattle of the Sun
chapter 12
Summary
In the chapter, The Cattle of the Sun, Ulysses and his men dock on an island where the Sun-Titans cattle lives. When they land on this island Ulysses tells them not to kill and eat the Sun-Titans cattle, because he is a god and he will cause them much trouble when they continue on their voyage. For food they kill a few wild pigs and roast them over a fire. Ulysses decides that they will stay for only one night on this island because there is not much food, and they do not want to waste to much time. For the next thirty days and nights the wind is blowing to the south, so they are not able to leave. Ulysses still will not let his crew and himself eat the cattle so they are finding anything that could be edible roasting it and eating it. One night when Ulysses is asleep, Eurylochus and the crew agree that they will kill some of the cattle and eat it because they would rather be killed by the gods with a full stomach. They secretly go over and kill six of the cattle, Ulysses then awakes from his sleep and finds them eating it. His crew tells him that they were start cattle and not the Sun-Titans so he is tricked into eating some of the cattle's flesh. Then the crew finds that the cooked cattle is still alive, so Ulysses knows he was tricked. As fast as they can Ulysses and the crew get off the island, hoping for the gods not to hurt them. But sure enough their boat slips and the temperature is to hot to bear, so they have to jump off the boat and the boat gets completely destroyed. They all have to split up and Ulysses goes down the straight with Scylla and Charybdis. He makes it by them and after drifting for nine days and nights eating gulls flesh, and drinking their blood he finally lands on an island.
Questions to Discuss
1. Is it harder to be a leader or a follower?
2. Is it somewhat Ulysses fault that their boat got crushed or just the crews?
3. Would you have eaten the Sun-Cattle?
4. Is it easier to go against someone else's rules or your rules?
Text Detective
Personification pg 98: "there was no sailing into the teeth of it"
Simile pg 100: "They leaped upon the carcasses like wild beasts"
Simile pg 103: "laying its white sail like a shroud over the ship"
Important quotes:
"He sent out party out in search of game, another to fill the water kegs, and a third to chop down pine trees. From the wood he pressed a fragrant sap, which was boiled in a big iron pot. Then he had the men tar the ship from stem to stern, caulking each crack."(pg.98)
This quote shows Ulysses' strong leadership and shows that he will keeping his crew busy to keep them from eating the sun-cattle, which would anger the gods and putting them in danger.
" Very well, said Ulysses. If it must be, it must be, it must be. But I am holding you two directly responsible for the safety of the sun-cattle."(pg.97)
This quote shows how sometimes Ulysses has to rely on his men for the survival of the crew. But in this case Ulysses shouldn't have relied on them because of the fact that they ate the cattle and angered the gods. This quote also shows how eager Ulysses is to return home to Ithaca.
"Finally, one night when Ulysses was asleep, Eurylochus secretly called the men together, and said, Death comes to men in all sorts of ways. And however it comes it is never welcome."(pg.99)
This quote shows the disobedience of Ulysses' crew, this is the second time Ulysses' crew has disobeyed him and they still haven't learned their lesson. My prediction later in the story is that Ulysses will not rely on his men for anything because there has been two incidents in which Ulysses had relied on his men and they let him down. There was this incident when they ate the sun-cattle, and the other incident was when they opened the wind bag which was a gift from the wind god Aeolus, and their ship got blown back to the island of Aeolus when they were within hours of Ithaca.
Research:
The cattle of the sun are located on the island of Thrinacia, which is believed to be modern day sicily. sicily is a island off the coast of Italy. It is also part of Italy.
The cattle of the sun are located on the island of Thrinacia, which is believed to be modern day sicily. sicily is a island off the coast of Italy. It is also part of Italy.