Now everyone knows the story of Helios the sun god, who drove the chariot of the sun across the sky every day, and Odysseus, the famous Greek hero, and his crew, but few know the story of Helios’s cattle whose slaughter caused the death of Odysseus’s men; There were numerous cattle, the most important and magnificent of the cattle were Clon, Deos, and Letos, three oxen, and Euryl and Suhco, the two elder sheep; the cattle were cared for by the daughters of Helios, Phaethusa, and Lampetia, who took great pleasure in their care of cattle. The island of Thrinacia was peaceful as it was monotonous, each morning Helios would leave to drive his chariot, Phaethusa and Lampetia would herd the cattle to the fields to eat grass and drink water for the remainder of the day, so whenever there was anything out of the norm on the island, the animals would discuss among themselves excitedly wanting to know what had caused a distribution to their daily routine . Having overheard Phaethusa talking about the arrival of a group of soldiers from the Trojan War who were on their way home, Euryl was quick to spread the information around as was usual of him within minutes the cattle was abuzz with questions about everything regarding the mysterious soldiers that had docked on their ship on the lonely island. Deos never giving up the chance to be a group leader  droned on about he had already known the news to anyone who was willing to listen, often proclaiming:

“I had been personally informed by Phaethusa”

Deos held up his often disputed belief that he was Phaethusa and Lampetia’s favorite animal, some days he would declare himself Helios’ favorite animal but he would always drop the claim after a couple of hours due to the inherently more hostile disagreements he was faced with for his outlandish claims about being the favorite of the sun god. He said that the two daughters would sometimes have direct conversations with him, although they did not understand the communication of the animals and he had no way of even responding,but few would care to disagree with the hulking Deos on his small lies, only being vocal in disagreement on what they perceived were his large lies and left him alone to believe his smaller fantasies. Deos had decided that the animals should move in the direction of the beach tomorrow when they were grazing, for on Thrinacia they grass and water was abundant and the cattle were allowed to move wherever they wanted as long as they stayed together, as usual whenever Deos proclaimed something his twin brother Clon, who was as hulking and magnificent as Deos: others said that he might be even more magnificent than Deos never with Deos around, of course, had made a suggestion that was in opposition to his,  after millions of years the two were still combative and it had become a much-enjoyed pastime to watch the two argue. Though the two brothers had already made the suggestions it was understood that the final decision rested with Sucho and Letos the oldest and wisest of all the animals, taking their time to decide, as is common of the old, Sucho announced:

“After taking some time to discuss, with input from both Clon and Deos, or Deos and Clon whatever order suits them nowadays, we decided to graze near the beach to catch a glimpse of these soldiers, however not too close in case of danger.” Her voice so powerful it grasped their attention like a child laying their eyes on a shiny object overcome with desire and desperation to get near it.

Little had she known the same men she had decided to get a peek at would be her eventual slayers.The next day the cattle began their expedition to see the mysterious soldiers, the two sisters Phaethusa and Lampetia remained in the back of the abundant cattle as custom when herding. The after a two-hour trek they had finally arrived at the beach-front the leaders of the cattle making sure to keep their distance. They laid their eyes on Odysseus and his men brought out several skinned figures that looked strangely like sheep comrades and began to roast them over the fire. Oblivious to the fact that mortal men dined on the flesh of their mortal counterparts the animals continued to study the men.

“So this is the noble Odysseus and his crew that Euryl was telling us about.” uttered reserved Letos.

Across the beach Odysseus,son of Laertes, and his crew discussed among themselves as they laid eyes on the magnificent cattle, later that evening Eurylochus, having already spotted some of these cattle from afar when they had first arrived on the island and his group had been set to gather resources for the camp, asked Odysseus for his permission to slaughter some of the cattle for both feasting and sacrifice. As history tells us Odysseus said no but his vagueness in why the men were not allowed to slaughter the cattle, not informing them that their very lives were at danger in doing so, prompted the men to disobey him while he was praying to the Gods.

As Eurylochus and the rest of the crew followed the path the animals had created with their many footsteps, the cattle themselves were still busy discussing the events of their expedition several days and; Clon and Deos were arguing about who among the cattle the men had thought to be the most impressive, the rest of the animals occupied with idle conversation about the most peculiars things such as the length of Odysseus men which some thought to be short, however, Letos, Euryl and Sucho discussed the matter that had been bothering Leto since the recent journey and that was the burning of the familiar shaped objects that the men had been roasting; Leto was convinced that the figures were in fact dead sheep the men were eating, however, his comrades did not believe his claim saying it couldn’t be known what the men were eating as they were not familiar with the food of mortals, however, they stood firm in their belief that mortal men did not eat animals. So when the crew of hungry men came about their usual grazing area that day, which was unfortunate for everyone involved, there were no protections and safety measures set in place, besides the two sisters who though protective and caring were nowhere near as powerful in magic as that of Helios’ other children, having only a sliver of magic when compared to some of their siblings such as the witch-goddess Circe, were overtaken by the men who ran out of their hiding places behind the trees, began throwing their spears in the direction of the sisters in order to drive them away, however the sisters combining their abilities formed an invisible barrier that deflected the spears rushed forward bringing the walls of the barrier with them attempting to get as many of the cattle behind the barrier as possible, seeing that their spears were useless against the sisters’ magic, the some of the men drove off as many cattle as they could toward the direction they had come from, while the others kept the sisters distracted with their useless spear attacks. The total amount of the cattle rounded up was ten which unfortunately contained the leaders and most magnificent of the cattle. Though the two brothers Clon and Deos made an attempt to combat the suitors they were met with the sharp blades of the men which rendered them as helpless as any mortal animal.

As the story goes the men would sacrifice some of the cattle however they kept Clon, Deos, Letos, Euryl and Suhco for themselves; the men would then be killed by the storm sent by Zeus as a punishment for their crime, and though omitted in most versions to spare the reputation of the men, they were sentenced to care for the very cattle they had killed for all of eternity in Hades.