he holy
flocks. But hunger pinches, Ulysses again goes to sleep at the wrong
moment, and the oxen of the Sun are slain by his men. It is true that
the test is a hard one, death by starvation is impending, and they
yield, not only violating their oaths but their light. Then they
defiantly repeated their deed, "for six whole days they feasted,
selecting the best of the Sun's oxen." When Ulysses awoke, he chid them
sternly, but did not, or could not, stop them. The result was, they
perished.

Already we have touched upon the physical basis which underlies this
tale. The symbolism we may consider somewhat more closely. The sin
against light on the part of the companions is double: they knew better
because they had been forewarned, they were not ignorant as when they
opened the Bag of Winds. Secondly, they destroyed objects sacred to the
grand luminary, they assailed the very source of light. Ulysses has
shared in the act also, he too must take his part of the penalty. He is
saved, for he forbade the wrong, yet he went to sleep at the critical
moment. To be sure the companions were hungry; but that is just the
test; if they had had plenty to eat, there would have been no real
trial of their fidelity to principle.

The ancient poet, throwing deepest glances into the soul and into the
world, beholds the supreme negative act of man, and seeks to clothe it
in a symbol. Mind turns against mind, when the man does what he knows
is wrong, and the destructive side is doubly re-inforced when he
assails light itself, and knowledge slays knowledge. When a person who
knows affirms in word and deed that his knowing is a lie, his light
puts out a light, he destroys the Oxen of the Sun. What then? It is no
wonder that the great luminary threatens "to go down to Hades and there
shine among the dead," unless the full penalty is exacted for such a
deed. In fact, he is already extinguished mentally for these men, and
Zeus, voicing the world-order, can only hurry them off into darkness.
Very wonderful is the thought lurking in the symbolism of the old seer:
intellectual negation, skepticism, denial, culminating in the negative
deed, will at last drive the Sun himself out of Heaven and send him
below into the Underworld. It is highly probable, however, that the
negative man will be sent down there first, as is done in the present
case.

After slaying the Oxen of the Sun and repeating the offense many times,
Ulysses and his companions must aga