Read the excerpt from part 4 of the odyssey. as long as bread and good red wine remained to keep the men up, and appease their craving, they would not touch the cattle. but in the end, when all the barley in the ship was gone, so hunger drove them to scour the wild shore with angling hooks, for fishes and seafowl, whatever fell into their hands; and lean days wore their bellies thin. what theme is best revealed by this conflict? a. it is easy to uphold morals when one is not suffering. b. resourcefulness is all one needs to survive. c. people can endure any suffering with teamwork. d. rules are challenging to follow without a strong leader.

An interesting passage from a very important piece of literature. It seems here that the most appropriate answer would be: 

A. It is easy to uphold morals when one is not suffering.

Here's why:

"As long as bread and good red wine remained
to keep the men up, and appease their craving,
they would not touch the cattle"

It is clear that the men did not want nor did they intend to use the cattle for food as long as their needs were provided for. However, in this case the men were also battling for survival. They required nutrition and if they had to use cattle for that then so be it.

The other reason that you can see they had the cattle in reserve is the fact that they resorted to fishing and "scouring the shore" for anything that might satisfy their stomachs.