On Unbelievable Stories

Regarding the cattle of Helios, I discovered an allegory in the Iliad. Among the ancients it was not acceptable to sacrifice working oxen to the gods. This is attested in Aratos, and is also clear from the poem itself. For Hecabe says to Athena:

To you I will sacrifice a broad-browed year-old heifer not broken in, whom no man has yet harnessed to a yoke.

(Iliad 10.292-3) Not only this: there is also the fact that they were called cattle of Helios [the sun] because they work the land and are our source of sustenance. The companions of Odysseus made a feast of working oxen, not the cattle of Helios, and

because of their own insolence they incurred suffering beyond their allotment.

(Odyssey 1.34)