My crew left the Ocean Stream and traveled back to Kirke to give a proper burial to Elpenor. Here Kirke directed me on how to get past the obstacles on our way home. The first obstacle we faced was the two Eirenes. I was tied to the mast and listened to their beautiful voices. I wanted to break away and go to their island, but the ropes restrained me. We got past them, and made our way to the Skylla. I tried to prepare for the Skylla, but it took me by surprise and killed six of my men. We quickly pushed forward and escaped. As we moved on, we approached the island of the sun. I didn't want to stop, but my crew out voted me and demanded that we did. I knew I couldn't stop them, but I made them take an oath that they wouldn't touch anything on their island. We rested their for many days, but our supplies soon ran out. While I was asleep, they killed a cattle without me, breaking the oath. I knew we were in trouble, so we left the island. As soon as we were out to sea, lightning struck down our ship. I lost all of my men, and landed on Kylapso's island.
I'm so mad my crew disobeyed my orders. I yelled to Zeus, "...you made me sleep away this day of mischief!" (222). We had gotten past the hard part of this journey, and the only thing we had to be was disciplined. I know that we were running out of food, and we needed rest, but we were so close. I shouldn't have listened to my men and stopped at that island. We should have stayed on course and continued our journey home.
My men were starving. Eurylokhos said to them, "...but famine is the most pitiful, the worst end that a man can come to...Come, we'll cut out the noblest of these cattle..." (221). Even though they had made an oath, a covenant, they couldn't obey it. Hunger had driven them to a point where they would do anything to get some food. When food is right in front of you, it is hard to ignore it and stay strong. A person will do whatever necessary in a difficult situation.
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