Which crewman persuades Odysseus's men to slaughter Helios's cattle?

Eurylochus persuades Odysseus’s men to slaughter the sacred cattle of Helios.

The episode occurs on Thrinacia after Odysseus and his crew pass Scylla and Charybdis. Both the prophet Tiresias and the enchantress Circe have warned Odysseus not to harm the cattle of the sun god, and Odysseus makes the crew swear to obey that command.

A storm strands the sailors on the island for a month, exhausting their food supplies. While Odysseus sleeps and prays apart from the camp, Eurylochus argues that starvation is worse than risking divine punishment. He convinces the crew to seize and sacrifice the finest cattle.

The herds are guarded by Helios’s daughters, Lampetia and Phaethusa, who report the slaughter. Helios demands punishment from Zeus. After the crew sails, Zeus destroys their ship with a thunderbolt, and every sailor except Odysseus dies. Eurylochus is therefore not merely another crewman: he is the instigator of the fatal disobedience. Polites, Perimedes, and Elpenor are separate members of Odysseus’s company.