Why does Zeus destroy Odysseus’s ship after the cattle of Helios are killed?

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Sixteenth-century engraving by Hieronymus Wierix depicting Homer, shown as an older man with a beard and laurel wreath, wearing a draped garment. — Odyssey: A Reader’s Guide to Homer’s Epic Engraving of Homer by Hieronymus Wierix, 16th century; in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

In Homer’s Odyssey, Zeus destroys Odysseus’s ship as an act of divine justice in response to the actions of Odysseus’s crew.1

After surviving the dangers of the Sirens and the strait of Scylla and Charybdis, the crew lands on the island of Thrinacia. Despite explicit warnings to avoid them, the men plunder and consume the sacred cattle belonging to the sun god, Helios.21

Deeply aggrieved by this transgression, Helios appeals to Zeus, the supreme authority of the Greek pantheon, to demand retribution. Zeus grants this request by sending a violent, calamitous storm that destroys the ship and claims the lives of the entire crew, leaving Odysseus as the sole survivor.13