Read the excerpt from the odyssey. ‘out to sea again! ' my men were mutinous, fools, on stores of wine. sheep after sheep they butchered by the surf, and shambling cattle, feasting,—while fugitives went inland, running to call to arms the main force of cicones. this was an army, trained to fight on horseback or, where the ground required, on foot. they came with dawn over that terrain like the leaves and blades of spring. so doom appeared to us, dark word of zeus for us, our evil days. which central idea should be included in a paraphrase of this excerpt? the forces sent by cicones to fight odysseus and his men arrived during the early morning hours. odysseus and his men feasted on the animals they slaughtered while on the island of cicones. the forces sent by cicones to stop the plundering of odysseus and his men were skilled and powerful. odysseus views the forces sent by cicones as punishment from the greek god zeus.