Odysseus does not just warn the men. He has them swear. On the beach, with the third warning ringing, every man on the ship gives an oath that he will not touch a single one of Helios’s cattle. The oath is sworn on his life. The gods register oaths. The sun registers oaths. The oath holds while the food holds. When the wind locks them in harbor and the bread runs out and the men start gnawing leather, Eurylochus argues that any death is better than slow starvation, and the oath collapses. Zeus does not forgive the broken oath. The ship burns at sea. The oath is the moment the men chose. It is also the receipt the gods kept.
The Oath to Helios
The crew swears on the third warning. They will not touch the cattle. The oath holds while they are full and breaks when they are starving.