For Odysseus and his men, the loss of Helios, the sun, symbolizes a loss of C. Hope.
In poetry, light ( such as the sun, the moon, candles, stars) often symbolizes good, hope, and freedom.
In the lines <em>"Never the flaming eye of Helios lights on those men at morning, when he climbs the sky of stars, nor in descending earthward out of heaven" </em>the reflected idea is that they do not see the sunrise or sunset anymore, thus they are eventually condemned to a total loss of light, that is to say, hope.
