Odysseus climbs the ridge into the oak forest because the men will starve otherwise. The thyme crushes underfoot. He spies smoke and then he spies the stag, drinking at the stream below, heavy in the shoulder, antlers wider than anything he ever brought down at home. He puts the spear through its neck and quarters it on the bank. The men, lying broken on the black sand under the hull, do not cheer his return. But they eat. The warm meat and the awkward conversation of those with nothing to say is the first sign that they are still alive. The stag is a gift before the trial.
The Great Stag
A heavy-shouldered deer at the stream on Circe's island. Wider in the rack than any Odysseus had taken on Ithaca. The first food after five hundred dead.