Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Episode 3, Proteus

Homer's Odyssey:
In Odyssey Proteus appears in book IV. Known as the Old Man of the Sea, Proteus can  foretell the future, to avoid which he assumes various forms. When Nestor is approached by Telemachus for news of his father, Odysseus, Nestor sends him to Menelaus as after the completion of the Trojan war, Nestor left the place early and returned home without knowing the fate of the other warriors. He says that Telemachus would be able to get more information regarding his father from Menelaus, who returned home after he himself. When Telemachus approaches Menelaus, the latter tells him of his meeting Proteus and hearing from him that Odysseus is still alive and is living somewhere in the wild sea.

James Joyce's Ulysses:
Joyce used the name Proteus to refer to the third episode/chapter of his Ulysses. This episode is perhaps the first difficult episode in Ulysses. Reading this we learn to come to terms with the difficult mode of Joyce's writing, often getting lost but never losing interest in deciphering all that he offers to us.
It is 11 a.m. Stephen is walking along the Sandymount strand, musing over many topics.

Selected Highlights of Episode 3 in Ulysses for the Uninitiated:
1. Sayings from Ulysses explored/explained:
- Ineluctable modality of the visible: at least that if no more, thought through my eyes. (3.1)
- maestro di color che sanno (3.6)
- See now. There all the time without you: and ever shall be, world without end. (3.27)
-  . . . made not begotten (3.45)
- We have nothing in the house but backache pills. (3.98)
- Cousin Stephen, you will never be a saint. (3.128)
- Someone was to read them after a few thousand years, a mahamanvantara (3.143)
- C'est le pigeon, Joseph. (3.162)
- God becomes man becomes fish becomes barnacle goose becomes featherbed mountain. (3.477)
(Episode.Line numbers in brackets above are according to Critical Edition of Ulysses by H. W. Gabler, 1986)
2. Illustrations:
- Watercolours by Catherine Meyer
- Reproduction of the painting, Adam and Eve, by Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem (1562-1638)
- Original photograph of Martello tower, today's James Joyce Tower and Museum by Chandra Holm

3. Links to
- The poem, Mathew Hannigan's Aunt, by Percy French (1854-1920)
- The Irish folk song, O, O the Boys of Kilkenny

And much more!

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