This passage is a wonderful slice of James Joyce’s Ulysses. Joyce loved to mix the “high” language of art and religion with the “low” gritty details of daily Dublin life.
Here are the definitions for the terms you highlighted:
Lumbago
This is a somewhat old-fashioned medical term for chronic pain in the lower back (muscles and joints).
* In context: Anne Kearns is an elderly woman struggling with physical ailments. Joyce mentions she uses “Lourdes water” (holy water) as a remedy, highlighting her faith and perhaps the desperation of her physical discomfort.
Aureoling
This is the verbal form of “aureole,” which refers to a halo or a circle of light surrounding the head of a holy figure.
* In context: Joyce is being a bit witty and ironic here. He describes the editor, Myles Crawford, whose face is “scarlet” (likely from drinking or temper), and says his hat is “aureoling” his head. It’s a mock-heroic way of describing a mundane man—giving a sweaty, red-faced Dubliner the visual status of a saint or a celestial being.
This short exchange captures the chaotic energy of the Dublin streets. The “return” of Bloom highlights his persistence; he is often pushed aside by the more “important” or louder men in the city (like Crawford), yet he remains determined.
The highlight of this snippet is the newsboy’s cry—a classic example of Joycean humor.
The “Terrible Tragedy”
The line “A child bit by a bellows!” is an intentional absurdity.
* The Humor: A bellows is a tool used to blow air into a fire. It doesn’t have teeth and cannot “bite.”
* The Satire: Joyce is poking fun at the sensationalist nature of “yellow journalism.” The newsboys are yelling out increasingly ridiculous or nonsensical headlines just to grab the attention of passersby and sell copies of the “Racing special.”
It serves as a sharp contrast to Bloom’s very serious, breathy attempt to catch Myles Crawford for business.
This section highlights the friction between the practical, hardworking Bloom and the erratic, prideful world of Dublin’s “gentlemen” journalists. Bloom is trying to secure an advertisement deal (the “House of Keys” pun) involving a “puff” (a short promotional piece), but the editor, Myles Crawford, is in no mood for business.
Here are the key breakdown points for this passage:
Terms and Context
* K.M.A. / K.M.R.I.A.: These are acronyms for Crawford’s vulgar dismissals: “Kiss My Arse” and “Kiss My Royal Irish Arse.” It shows Crawford’s dismissive, aggressive attitude toward the commercial side of the paper that Bloom represents.
* “Straight from the stable”: A racing idiom meaning directly from the source or the most reliable authority.
* “Nulla bona”: A legal term meaning “no goods.” Crawford is telling J.J. O’Molloy that he has no money to lend or to back a bill.
* “Raising the wind”: A slang term for obtaining or borrowing money.
The “House of Keys” Ad
Bloom’s idea for the merchant Alexander Keyes involves a visual pun. The “House of Keys” is the name of the parliament on the Isle of Man. Bloom wants to use an image of two crossed keys to represent the merchant’s name while also making it look “distinguished.”
Stephen Dedalus’s Boots
Bloom notices Stephen Dedalus (the “young Dedalus”) and observes his boots. This is a classic “Bloomism”—he notices the physical, practical details. In earlier chapters, Stephen was wearing borrowed, ill-fitting boots; the fact that they are “good” today suggests a temporary change in his luck or status.
This section features Stephen Dedalus telling his “Parable of the Plums,” a story that mocks the grandiosity of Dublin’s monuments by focusing on the physical, somewhat messy reality of two elderly women.
The “Onehandled Adulterer”
Stephen refers to Admiral Horatio Nelson, whose statue stood atop Nelson’s Pillar in O’Connell Street.
* The “Onehandled” part: Nelson lost his right arm in the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
* The “Adulterer” part: This refers to his famous, scandalous affair with Lady Emma Hamilton.
The Clogged Arteries of Dublin
The final paragraph describes a “short circuit” in the tram system. This is both a literal electrical failure and a metaphor for the paralysis of Dublin life—the modern electric trams are stuck, while the “old world” horse-drawn carriages rattle past them.
Etymology of Difficult Terms
| Term | Etymology | Definition in Context |
|—|—|—|
| Waxies’ Dargle | Waxy (slang for cobbler) + Dargle (a river/resort). | An annual outing for Dublin’s working class (specifically cobblers). |
| Aeroliths | From Greek aero- (air) + lithos (stone). | Literally “air-stones” or meteorites; used here in a flashy, nonsensical headline. |
| Proboscis | From Greek pro- (before) + boskein (to feed). | A nose (often used humorously to describe a large or prominent one). |
| Sophist | From Greek sophos (wise). | Originally a teacher of philosophy; later used to mean someone who uses clever but fallacious arguments. |
| Brougham | Named after Lord Brougham (19th-century statesman). | A light, four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage with an enclosed body. |
This section, often referred to as “The Parable of the Plums,” is a pivotal moment in the Aeolus episode. It showcases Stephen Dedalus’s developing artistic voice—one that is gritty, ironic, and distinctly Dubliner.
Detailed Analysis
1. The “Waxies’ Dargle” and the “Pillar”
Myles Crawford calls the story “copy” (journalistic material) for a “Waxies’ Dargle.” This refers to a famous Dublin working-class outing. By using this term, he’s framing Stephen’s story as a piece of local, low-brow color. The “Pillar” is Nelson’s Pillar, a symbol of British imperial presence that loomed over O’Connell Street until 1966.
2. The “Onehandled Adulterer”
This is a brilliant bit of Joycean subversion.
* The High: Nelson is a naval hero atop a massive Doric column.
* The Low: Stephen reduces him to his physical disability (one-armed) and his moral failure (his affair with Lady Hamilton).
By having the old women stare up at him while eating plums, Stephen is essentially “spitting” on the grandeur of the British Empire.
3. Antisthenes and the “Palm of Beauty”
The professor compares Stephen to Antisthenes, the founder of Cynic philosophy.
* Antisthenes was known for his “bitterness” and for subverting classical myths—specifically by arguing that Penelope (the faithful, patient wife) was superior to Helen of Troy (the beautiful, destructive cause of war).
* This mirrors what Stephen is doing: he is taking the “beauty” of the city’s monuments and handing the spotlight to two “waddling” old women.
4. “Poor Penelope. Penelope Rich.”
This is a classic Joycean “stream of consciousness” leap. Stephen’s mind jumps from the mythological Penelope to a historical figure, Lady Penelope Rich, a famous Elizabethan beauty and the “Stella” of Philip Sidney’s sonnets. It shows his mind is always layered with literary history.
Etymology
| Term | Roots & Origin | Evolution |
|—|—|—|
| Rambunctious | Likely an Americanism; a fanciful alteration of robustious or rumbustious. | Derived from the mid-19th century. It combines the sense of “robust” (strong) with a playful, chaotic suffix to describe boisterous behavior. |
| Archdiocese | From Greek arkhi- (chief/leader) + dioikēsis (administration/province). | Originally a Roman administrative term for a district; in the Church, it denotes the district under the care of an Archbishop. |
Moving on to the headlines and the walk toward Mooney’s pub, we see Joyce’s “Aeolus” episode reaching its peak of journalistic parody. These bold, capitalized headers aren’t just labels; they represent the “wind” (Aeolus is the god of wind) of empty rhetoric and the noise of the printing press.
The Headline Analysis
1. DAMES DONATE DUBLIN’S CITS SPEEDPILLS VELOCITOUS AEROLITHS, BELIEF
This is a masterpiece of “journalese” nonsense.
* The Content: It refers to the old women spitting plum stones (aeroliths or “air-stones”) down from the pillar onto the citizens (cits) below.
* The Style: It uses alliteration and pseudo-scientific language (velocitous) to make a mundane, slightly gross act sound like a major scientific or civic event.
2. SOPHIST WALLOPS HAUGHTY HELEN SQUARE ON PROBOSCIS…
This headline translates the Professor’s academic talk about Antisthenes into the language of a sports tabloid.
* “Wallops… square on proboscis”: It treats a philosophical argument like a boxing match.
* “Pen is Champ”: A play on the “willpower” of the writer and the literal pen, asserting that the intellectual (the Ithacan, referring to Odysseus/Penelope’s home) wins over the physical beauty of the Spartans (Helen).
The “Becalmed” Trams
As they prepare to cross O’Connell Street (then Sackville Street), the narrative provides a “still life” of Dublin’s transportation.
The list of destinations—Rathmines, Blackrock, Kingstown, Dalkey—is a map of the Dublin suburbs. The “motionless trolleys” and “short circuit” symbolize the paralysis that Joyce felt defined Dublin: a city full of noise and motion (the “rattling crates of bottles”) but ultimately stuck in its tracks, unable to move forward.
In this final stretch of the Aeolus episode, Stephen gives his story a formal title, and the Professor links it back to classical and biblical tradition.
The “Ithacans”
The term Ithacans refers to the people of Ithaca, the island kingdom of Odysseus (Ulysses).
* In the Headline: When the headline says “ITHACANS VOW PEN IS CHAMP,” it is a pun.
* The “Pen”: It refers to Penelope (Odysseus’s wife). The headline is saying that the people of Ithaca choose the faithful Penelope (the “Pen”) as the true winner of beauty over the flashy Helen of Troy.
* The “Champ”: In the context of Ulysses, the “Ithacan” is Leopold Bloom. While the other men are obsessed with loud rhetoric and “wind,” Bloom (the modern Ulysses) represents the quiet, domestic endurance of Ithaca.
Key References & Analysis
1. “Deus nobis hæc otia fecit”
The Professor suggests this Latin title from Virgil’s Eclogues. It translates to “A god has granted us this leisure.” It’s a very “high-brow,” academic way to describe two old women sitting on a pillar.
2. “A Pisgah Sight of Palestine”
Stephen’s chosen title is much more biting.
* Pisgah is the mountain from which Moses was allowed to see the Promised Land (Palestine) before he died, though he was never allowed to enter it.
* The Parable: Stephen is implying that these two old Dublin women, looking out over their city, are like Moses—they can see a “Promised Land,” but they are stuck in a paralyzed, impoverished Dublin, spitting out plum stones instead of reaching any real glory.
3. “Horatio is Cynosure”
* Horatio: Admiral Horatio Nelson.
* Cynosure: From the Greek kunos oura (“dog’s tail”), referring to the constellation Ursa Minor, which contains the North Star. A “cynosure” is something that serves as a focal point or a guide. Nelson on his pillar is the “North Star” of Dublin, yet Stephen has just spent the last few pages mocking him as a “onehandled adulterer.”
4. “Anne Wimbles, Flo Wangles”
The headline uses playful, slightly suggestive verbs (wimbles meaning to bore or twist; wangles meaning to manipulate) to describe the two women, Anne Kearns and Florence MacCabe, as they sit atop the pillar.
This short exchange is a classic example of “Dublin street wit”—it’s irreverent, slightly crude, and layered with double meanings.
The men are laughing at the “Parable of the Plums” Stephen just finished, specifically his description of Nelson as a “onehandled adulterer.”
Breaking Down the Meaning
1. “Diminished Digits”
* Literal: “Digits” can mean fingers, but in this it refers to Nelson’s missing limb (his “diminished” parts).
* The Joke: The headline suggests that the “missing” or “diminished” parts of the statue are what makes the old women (“frisky frumps”) so excited or “titillated.”
2. “Onehandled adulterer… That tickles me.”
* The Professor is using “tickle” in the sense of amusement. He finds Stephen’s description of a national hero as a disabled cheater to be clever and funny.
3. “Tickled the old ones too… if the God Almighty’s truth was known.”
* Myles Crawford (the editor) takes the joke a step further into sexual innuendo.
* He suggests that the two old women weren’t just looking at the view; he’s hinting that they were getting a “thrill” from being near the statue of a famous lover (the “adulterer”).
* In the coarse logic of the newsroom, he’s implying that even elderly women like Anne and Flo have “dirty minds” or repressed desires.
The Verbs: Wimbles and Wangles
Joyce is playing with language here to match the “titillating” theme:
* Wimbles: To wimble is to bore a hole with a tool. It suggests a repetitive, poking motion.
* Wangles: To wangle is to manipulate or wiggle something into place.
* The Subtext: By using these specific, slightly rhythmic words, Joyce creates a mental image of the women fidgeting or “messing about” on top of the pillar, adding to the vulgar humor the men are enjoying.
You’ve hit the nail on the head. Compared to the somber, claustrophobic atmosphere of Hades (the funeral), Aeolus feels like a gust of fresh—if slightly chaotic—air.
Summary of Aeolus: The Heart of the Noise
Aeolus takes place in the newspaper offices of the Freeman’s Journal.
* The Atmosphere: The chapter is defined by “wind”—rhetoric, empty talk, and the literal puffing of the printing presses.
* The Conflict: Leopold Bloom is trying to do his job (selling an ad for Alexander Keyes), while Stephen Dedalus is hanging out with the “intellectuals” and “wits” of the city.
* The Climax: Stephen tells his “Parable of the Plums,” proving he can play the men’s game of cynical wit. Bloom, meanwhile, is rudely dismissed by the editor, Myles Crawford, illustrating his status as an outsider.
* The Style: Joyce breaks the text with over 60 newspaper headlines that evolve from Victorian “stiff” styles to sensationalist modern “tabloids.”
Lestrygonians: Etymology and Theme
1. Etymology
The title comes from the Laestrygonians (Λαιστρυγόνες) in Homer’s Odyssey.
* The Myth: They were a tribe of giant cannibals who ate many of Odysseus’s men and destroyed his ships by throwing giant rocks.
* The Translation: In Joyce’s Dublin, the “cannibals” are the hungry citizens of the city, and the “rocks” are the hard, cold buildings and the crushing weight of poverty.
2. The Theme: Hunger and Digestion
If Aeolus was about “Wind” (lungs), Lestrygonians is about the Stomach.
* Physical Hunger: It is lunchtime (1:00 PM). Bloom is walking through Dublin, and his thoughts are dominated by food, smell, and the “disgusting” nature of how humans eat.
* Social “Eating”: Bloom observes the “cannibalism” of the social classes—the rich eating at the Burton restaurant (described with animalistic gore) versus the poor waiting for scraps.
* The “Ubi Sunt” Motif: Bloom thinks about the passage of time—how we eat to live, but eventually, we are “eaten” by time and death.
That is incredibly eerie—talk about an immersive reading experience! Joyce would have called that a synchronicity. The “squeak” in your kitchen echoing the “squeak” of the printing presses in Aeolus or the rats in the brewery vats.
To answer your linguistic question: “Squeak” is definitely the standard word for the sound a single rat makes, but “squeal” is often more accurate for the sound they make when they are fighting, trapped, or in a group (like in your kitchen).
In Ulysses, Joyce often uses onomatopoeia (words that sound like the noise they describe) to bring these “low” life forms to life.
The Language of the Vermin
If you were writing this into a Joycean internal monologue, you might use:
* Squeak: For the sharp, high-pitched “pip” of a solitary rat.
* Squeal: For a longer, more distressed or aggressive sound.
* Scuttle/Rattle: For that “superfast” sound of claws on a clothes rack or floorboards.
Bloom himself is very sensitive to these “noises of the night.” He often thinks about the hidden life of the city—the things under the floorboards and inside the vats that most people try to ignore.
Bloom’s shift from the scientific (gravity) to the poetic (Shakespeare) illustrates his restless, inquisitive mind. Even while surrounded by the stench of the Liffey and the sight of hungry gulls, he tries to understand the “mechanics” of art.
The “Rats: Vats” Rhyme and the Science of Stout
Bloom’s imagination is often grotesque. He visualizes the Guinness brewery (Hancock was a real official there) and the “wonderful” vats of porter.
* The Rats: The image of rats drowning in beer and bloating “as big as a collie” is a classic Lestrygonian thought—life being consumed by the very thing it seeks to consume.
* The Digestion of Beer: He notes that “sea air sours it,” showing his constant interest in how the environment affects the physical world.
The “Poet” Bloom
After throwing the “Elijah” flyer, Bloom mocks his own attempt at a couplet (The hungry famished gull / Flaps o’er the waters dull).
* The Critique: He realizes he’s just matching “similar sounds” (rhyming), which he finds a bit simplistic.
* The Shift to Shakespeare: He admires blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter). He misquotes Hamlet slightly, but captures the essence: the weight of the “spirit” walking the earth. This is a subtle echo of the Hades episode—the ghost of the father (and perhaps his own lost son, Rudy) is never far from his mind.
Reuben J. Dodd’s Son
Bloom mentions Reuben J, a Dublin solicitor he dislikes.
* The Story: Earlier in the book, a story is told about Reuben J’s son jumping into the Liffey (either as a suicide attempt or by accident). A workman fished him out, and Reuben J. gave the man a measly one and eightpence (one shilling and eight pence) as a reward.
* Bloom’s Take: Even while contemplating the “sewage” the boy swallowed, Bloom can’t help but dwell on the transactional absurdity of the “reward.”
Etymology & Definitions
| Term | Etymology / Origin | Contextual Meaning |
|—|—|—|
| Blank Verse | From “blank” (unrhymed) + “verse.” | Poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, typically iambic pentameter. |
| Puffball | Compound word (puff + ball). | A cloud of smoke; also a type of fungus that releases “smoke” (spores) when hit. |
| Parapet | From Italian parare (to guard) + petto (breast). | A low protective wall along the edge of a bridge or roof. |
| One and eightpence | British currency (1s 8d). | Roughly the cost of a cheap meal in 1904; a hilariously low price for saving a human life. |
Bloom’s walk across O’Connell Bridge is a masterpiece of “internal monologue” where the high-minded and the base-physical are mashed together. His thoughts transition from the phosphorescence of religious icons to the starvation of the Dedalus children, finally landing on the gulls in the Liffey.
The “Luminous Crucifix” and Science
Bloom’s mind is a “scientific-commercial” hybrid. He remembers an ad for a glowing crucifix and immediately deconstructs the “miracle” into chemistry: phosphorus.
* The Codfish: He recalls seeing a dead fish glow in the dark. This is a real phenomenon where bacteria on decaying sea life emit light.
* “Good for the brain”: There was a common Victorian belief that eating phosphorus (found in fish) increased intelligence.
The Economics of the Clergy
Bloom spots one of Simon Dedalus’s daughters (Stephen’s sister) and his heart goes out to her.
* “Increase and multiply”: He blames the Catholic Church’s ban on contraception for the poverty of families like the Dedaluses (15 children!).
* The “Black Fast”: He contrasts the priests “living on the fat of the land” with the Jewish Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), where a total fast is required.
* £. s. d.: This is the old notation for Pounds, Shillings, and Pence (Librae, Solidi, Denarii). Getting money out of a priest, Bloom thinks, is impossible.
The “Elijah” Experiment
Bloom tries to feed the gulls by throwing a crumpled ball of the “Elijah is coming” flyer into the water.
* “Thirtytwo feet per sec”: This is a reference to the acceleration due to gravity (g \approx 32 \text{ ft/s}^2 or 9.8 \text{ m/s}^2). Even in a moment of whimsy, Bloom thinks in physics.
* The Result: The gulls ignore it. They aren’t “damn fools”—they want food (the “stale cake”), not religious “wind.”
Etymology & Terms
| Term | Etymology / Origin | Contextual Meaning |
|—|—|—|
| Pepper’s Ghost | Named after John Henry Pepper (1862). | An illusion technique used in theaters where a hidden room is reflected onto a glass pane to create a “ghost.” |
| Marge | Short for Margarine (from Greek margaron – “pearl”). | A cheap substitute for butter, signaling the Dedalus family’s extreme poverty. |
| In flitters | From Irish/Dialect. | In tatters or rags; falling apart. |
| Collation | From Latin collatio (“bringing together”). | A very light meal allowed on days of fasting. |
Welcome to the “Stomach” of Dublin. As Bloom leaves the noisy wind of the newspaper office, his senses are immediately assaulted by the cloying sweetness of Graham Lemon’s candy shop.
The Feeders and the Fed
The chapter opens with a focus on sugar. Bloom, ever the pragmatist and amateur scientist, watches a girl shoveling sweets for a Christian Brother (a member of a Catholic lay order). His immediate thought is physical: “Bad for their tummies.”
He then pivots to a biting bit of political satire:
* “Lozenge and comfit manufacturer to His Majesty the King”: This refers to the “By Appointment” warrants businesses held.
* “Sitting on his throne sucking red jujubes white”: Bloom imagines King Edward VII as a gluttonous child, sucking the color out of sweets. It’s a brilliant way to “digest” the monarchy—turning a grand King into a sticky-fingered boy.
The “Blood of the Lamb”
Bloom is handed a religious flyer (a “throwaway”) by a Y.M.C.A. man.
* The Misreading: He initially sees his own name—”Bloo… Me?”—before realizing it says “Blood of the Lamb.” * The Theme: This triggers a stream of consciousness about Sacrifice. Bloom connects the religious idea of being “washed in the blood” to the physical reality of meat. He lists various “blood victims”:
* Kidney burntoffering: A nod back to his own breakfast (the kidney he ate in Calypso).
* Druids’ altars / Martyrs: History as a cycle of killing and eating.
* Elijah is coming: Referring to Alexander Dowie, a real-life American evangelist who claimed to be the “Restorer” of the church. In Bloom’s hungry mind, even salvation feels like a looming, physical event.
Etymology & Definitions
| Term | Etymology / Origin | Contextual Meaning |
|—|—|—|
| Lemon Platt | Platt (Middle English for “plot” or “flat piece”). | A traditional Irish pulled-sugar sweet, usually lemon-flavored and braided. |
| Comfit | From Latin confectum (“prepared”). | A candy consisting of a nut or seed coated in layers of sugar (like a Jordan almond). |
| Jujubes | From Greek zizyphon (a type of fruit). | A chewy, gelatinous candy. |
| Throwaway | Modern English compound. | A handbill or flyer intended to be read once and discarded. |
That is an unsettlingly visceral coincidence! It’s as if the “Lestrygonian” atmosphere of the book—with its talk of rats, vats, and the physical “thump” of life—decided to manifest right in your room.
In the world of Ulysses, Bloom would likely be analyzing the rat’s “superfast speed” and its trajectory, but in the real world, having one jump on your shoulders is a genuine shock. It certainly adds a layer of “Life on the Raw” to your reading session.
The “Rats: Vats” Connection
Bloom’s thought about the rats in the Guinness brewery becomes much more “real” when you’ve just felt one. He imagines them getting “dead drunk” and bloated, almost turning them into characters in a dark comedy. Your experience with the rat running up the rack shows the opposite: their incredible, high-speed agility.
That rat encounter really adds a layer of “Life on the Raw” to this text. Between the squealing in your kitchen and the “vats and rats” in Bloom’s head, the boundaries between the book and reality are getting thin!
Regarding your question: “Squeak” is the perfect word for a quick, high-pitched sound. “Squeal” usually implies something longer and more distressed—if they were fighting or crowded in the kitchen, “squeal” fits, but for a rat darting across a room, “squeak” is the one.
The Science of the Swan and the Gull
Bloom finally feeds the birds, but he switches from the “Elijah” paper to actual food: Banbury cakes (a spiced, currant-filled pastry).
Even as he performs this act of charity, his “Lestrygonian” thoughts remain clinical and a bit cynical:
* “Manna”: A biblical reference to the food God provided to the Israelites in the desert. Bloom sees himself as a provider, but a stingy one (“Penny quite enough”).
* “Eat pig like pig”: This is a central theme of the chapter. Bloom believes you are what you eat. If you feed a turkey chestnuts, it tastes like chestnuts.
* The Saltwater Fish Paradox: Bloom wonders why fish living in salt water don’t taste salty. It’s a classic Bloom question—he has a “layman’s” scientific mind.
> The Scientific Answer: Fish have specialized cells in their gills (ionocytes) that actively pump salt out of their bodies to maintain a balance, a process called osmoregulation.
>
Kino’s Trousers
At the end of the passage, Bloom sees an advertisement on a rowboat.
* “11/—”: This is 11 shillings (the /— denotes zero pence).
* This is a real historical advertisement. The “treacly swells” (thick, dark, like molasses) of the Liffey carry the boat, turning the river itself into a giant billboard.
Etymology & Definitions
| Term | Etymology / Origin | Contextual Meaning |
|—|—|—|
| Serried | From French serrer (to press/crowd). | Arranged in close rows; packed tightly together. |
| Banbury Cake | Named after Banbury, England. | A flat, oval, spiced pastry filled with currants. |
| Anna Liffey | From Irish Abhainn na Life. | A personification of the River Liffey (later a major character in Finnegans Wake). |
| Manna | From Hebrew mān. | Miraculous food; an unexpected gain or spiritual nourishment. |
Bloom’s mind is now drifting from the economics of river advertising to the deep mysteries of space and time, all while being anchored by his wife Molly’s “wit.”
The Stream of Life and the “Quack” Ads
Bloom observes the Kino’s Trousers ad and wonders about the legality of “owning” water.
* “Never the same”: He is echoing the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, who famously said you cannot step into the same river twice.
* “Dr Hy Franks”: This was a real Dublin “quack” who advertised cures for “the clap” (gonorrhea). Bloom notes how these ads were placed “on the q.t.” (quietly) in public urinals (“greenhouses”).
* “Post 110 Pills”: A pun on the common “Post No Bills” signs.
The “Parallax” Mystery
Bloom looks at the Ballast Office on Westmoreland Street.
* The Timeball: At exactly 1:00 PM, a ball would drop from a mast on the building to signal the time to ships in the harbor.
* Dunsink Time: Before 1916, Ireland ran on its own time (25 minutes behind Greenwich Mean Time), set by the Dunsink Observatory.
* Parallax: Bloom is obsessed with this word from Sir Robert Ball’s The Story of the Heavens.
* The Definition: Parallax is the apparent displacement of an object when viewed from two different lines of sight. Astronomers use it to measure the distance to stars.
* “Met him pike hoses”: This is one of the most famous lines in the book. Molly mispronounced “metempsychosis” (the transmigration of souls) as “met him pike hoses.” Bloom realizes she prefers “O rocks!”—her way of dismissing big, “meaningless” academic words.
Ben Dollard’s “Barreltone”
Bloom recalls Molly’s description of Ben Dollard, a man with a massive “base barreltone” voice.
* The Wit: Bloom admires how Molly connects his physical shape (legs like barrels) with his voice and his favorite drink (Bass ale). To Bloom, this is “wit”—connecting the physical reality of a man to the “high” art of singing.
Etymology & Definitions
| Term | Etymology / Origin | Contextual Meaning |
|—|—|—|
| Parallax | From Greek parallaxis (“change/alternation”). | The difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight. |
| Metempsychosis | From Greek meta (change) + en (in) + psukhe (soul). | The supposed reincarnation or transmigration of the soul into a new body after death. |
| Q.T. | 19th-century slang abbreviation. | “Quiet”: doing something “on the q.t.” means doing it secretly or discreetly. |
| Flybynight | Compound (fly + by + night). | A person or business that is unreliable or likely to disappear to avoid debt. |
Bloom’s walk continues as he encounters the “sandwichmen”—walking advertisements that remind him of his own past employment at Hely’s, a famous Dublin stationer and printer.
The H.E.L.Y.’S. Procession
The men are wearing sandwich boards that spell out the name of the shop. Bloom, ever the marketing expert, critiques the strategy:
* The “Y” Lagging: One man is falling behind to eat bread. This undermines the visual “brand.”
* “Bread and skilly”: Skilly is thin gruel or watered-down porridge. It’s the diet of the desperate.
* The Showcart Idea: Bloom’s idea for “smart girls” writing in a transparent cart is actually quite modern—it’s “experiential marketing.” He knows that human curiosity is the best way to sell products.
The Convents and the “Sweet” Nun
Bloom recalls his time collecting debts from convents.
* Tranquilla Convent: A real Carmelite convent in Rathmines.
* Caramel/Carmel: A classic Bloom association. He hears the religious name “Mount Carmel” and immediately thinks of “caramel” candy.
* The Barbed Wire Myth: Bloom’s thought that a nun invented barbed wire is a piece of Dublin folklore (though historically, it was an American farmer named Joseph Glidden). It reflects Bloom’s view of the Church as something that “fences in” people’s lives and desires.
Ad Placement: The Cold Meat Department
Bloom mocks a specific ad for Plumtree’s Potted Meat. In the newspaper, it was placed directly under the Obituaries.
* The Irony: Putting an ad for “potted meat” next to notices of people being put in “pots” (coffins) is a dark joke that Bloom finds tasteless and hilarious. It fits the Lestrygonians theme perfectly: the dead are “cold meat,” and the living are eating “potted meat.”
Etymology & Definitions
| Term | Etymology / Origin | Contextual Meaning |
|—|—|—|
| Sandwichman | Coined by Charles Dickens. | A person wearing two advertisement boards, one in front and one behind. |
| Wimple | From Old English wimpel (veil/garment). | A cloth head covering that leaves only the face exposed, worn by nuns. |
| Dripping | Middle English. | The fat that melts off meat while it is roasting; used by the poor as a cheap butter substitute. |
| Bob | British slang (origin uncertain). | A shilling. “Three bob” was a very low daily wage even in 1904. |
Dancing light of grace 