fools, who ate the cattle of Helios Hyperion;
but he deprived them of the day of their return.
— Odyssey
Since we still had some hardtack
how stupid of us
to go ashore and eat
the Sun's slow cattle,
for each was a castle
you'd have to battle
forty years, till you'd become
a hero and a star!
On the earth's back we hungered,
but when we'd eaten well
we fell to these lower regions
mindless and satisfied.
Giorgos Seferis
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-companions-in-hades/
