"Thus spoke Eurylokhos, and the
men approved his words. Now the cattle, so fair and goodly, were
feeding not far from the ship; the men, therefore drove in the best
of them, and they all stood round them saying their prayers, and
using young oak-shoots instead of barley-meal, for there was no
barley left. When they had done praying they killed the cows and
dressed their carcasses; they cut out the thigh bones, wrapped them
round in two layers of fat, and set some pieces of raw meat on top of
them. They had no wine with which to make drink-offerings over the
sacrifice while it was cooking, so they kept pouring on a little
water from time to time while the inward meats were being grilled;
then, when the thigh bones were burned and they had tasted the inward
meats, they cut the rest up small and put the pieces upon the
spits.
"By this time my deep sleep had
left me, and I turned back to the ship and to the sea shore. As I
drew near I began to smell hot roast meat, so I groaned out a prayer
to the immortal gods. ‘Father Zeus,’ I exclaimed, ‘and
all you other gods who live in everlasting bliss, you have done me a
cruel mischief [atê] by the sleep into which you
have sent me; see what fine work these men of mine have been making
in my absence.’
"Meanwhile Lampetie went straight
off to the sun and told him we had been killing his cows, whereon he
flew into a great rage, and said to the immortals, ‘Father Zeus,
and all you other gods who live in everlasting bliss, I must have
vengeance on the crew of Odysseus’ ship: they have had the
insolence to kill my cows, which were the one thing I loved to look
upon, whether I was going up heaven or down again. If they do not
square accounts with me about my cows, I will go down to Hades and
shine there among the dead.’
"‘Sun,’ said Zeus,
‘go on shining upon us gods and upon humankind over the fruitful
earth. I will shiver their ship into little pieces with a bolt of
white lightning as soon as they get out to sea.’
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