Homer's Odyssey:
Odysseus narrates the story of the sea-nymph Circe to King Alcinous in Book X of Odyssey. He narrates how after encountering the Lotus Eaters, and escaping from the Cyclops, he and his men reach the island of Aeaea, where Circe lived. Some of the men sent by Odysseus to find out about the inhabitants of the island, reach Circe's palace, where they see wolves and mountain lions prowling outside. These beasts instead of attacking the newcomers, wag their tails at them. Inviting them inside Circe offers the men food and drink laced with magic drugs, which turn them into pigs. The one person who had not entered Circe's palace returns to the ship and informs Odysseus what had happened. Odysseus sets off himself. On the way he meets Hermes, who tells him about Circe, and gives him a powerful herb that will save him from Circe's magic. Inside Circe's palace, things happen as predicted by Hermes. When Circe realizes that her magic does not touch Odysseus, she invites him to stay with her, and agrees to free his men. Odysseus and his men stay with her for a year, after which they decide to leave and go back to their homes. Circe agrees, tells them that they have to visit Hades, before they can return home.
James Joyce's Ulysses:
Joyce used the name - to refer to the 15th episode/chapter of his Ulysses. This episode is the episode of the Nighttown, which Bloom visits in search of Stephen. Joyce bases this episode on the concept of hallucination. It has a dream like quality in which reality and common sense take back seat. The scenes change rapidly as different persons (dead and alive) appear. Inanimate objects - the lemon scented soap that Bloom had bought at Sweny's, a cap, a fan, a gramophone, a waterfall, past sins, the morning and noon hours, end of the world - come alive and converse. Dead persons such as Bloom's grandfather, mother and his son Rudy appear. A couple of really crazy hallucinations are the court scene, where his (Bloom's) old friend, Dr Malachi Mulligan, sex specialist, appears to give medical testimony and announces that Dr Bloom is bisexually abnormal and is virgo intacta and Mrs Cohen's brothel which Bloom enters to find Stephen and Lynch and where Bloom is turned into a sow by Bella Cohen, the owner of the brothel. In a way, we do get somewhat used to the craziness we confront in this episode, and learn slowly not to look for rationality. When we succeed in this, we understand what a veritable delight awaits us in this episode. There is lot in this episode which remind us of the Circean episode in Odyssey.
It is midnight.
Selected Highlights of Episode 15 in Ulysses for the Uninitiated:
1. Sayings from Ulysses explored/explained:
- A plate crashes, a woman screams: a child wails. Oaths of a man roar, mutter, cease. Figures wander, lurk, peer from warrens. (15.37)
- .Would you like me perhaps to embrace you just for a fraction of a second? (15.429)
- Kaw kave kankury kake. (15.686)
- I did all a white man could.. . . Jim Bludso. Hold her nozzle again the bank. (15.797)
- . . . though branded as a black sheep, if he might say so, he meant to reform, to retrieve the memory of the past . . . (15.901)
- I'll flog him black and blue in the public streets. (15.1115)
- Habemus carnefice (15.1488)
- . . . with his sceptre strikes down poppies. (15.1565)
- Several shopkeepers . . . throw objects such as hambones, condensed milk tins, unsaleable cabbage, stale bread, sheep's tails, old pieces of fat. (15.1763)
- Professor Bloom is a finished example of the new womanly man. (15.1798)
- Whorusalaminyourhighhohhhh (15.2211)
- I am the dreamer creamery butter (15.2275)
- Pig God! He had two left feet. (15.2572)
- We'll manure you . . . (15.3212)
- I dreamt of a watermelon. (15.3922)
- Non serviam! (15.4228)
- But in here it is I must kill the priest and the king. (15.4436)
- I'll do him in, so help me fucking Christ! (15.4720)
(Episode.Line numbers in brackets above are according to the Critical Edition of Ulysses by H. W. Gabler, 1986)
2. Illustrations:
- Watercolours by Catherine Meyer
3. Links to
- The lyrics of the ballad, Jim Bludso of the Prairie Bell, by John Hay, published in 1971
- The recitation of the song, There is a Flower that Bloometh, by William Wallace, sung by John McCormack
- The poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade, by Lord Alfred Tennyson, published in 1854
- The video of the ballet, Dance of the Hours, by the Arts Ballet Theater of Florida
And much more!
Odysseus narrates the story of the sea-nymph Circe to King Alcinous in Book X of Odyssey. He narrates how after encountering the Lotus Eaters, and escaping from the Cyclops, he and his men reach the island of Aeaea, where Circe lived. Some of the men sent by Odysseus to find out about the inhabitants of the island, reach Circe's palace, where they see wolves and mountain lions prowling outside. These beasts instead of attacking the newcomers, wag their tails at them. Inviting them inside Circe offers the men food and drink laced with magic drugs, which turn them into pigs. The one person who had not entered Circe's palace returns to the ship and informs Odysseus what had happened. Odysseus sets off himself. On the way he meets Hermes, who tells him about Circe, and gives him a powerful herb that will save him from Circe's magic. Inside Circe's palace, things happen as predicted by Hermes. When Circe realizes that her magic does not touch Odysseus, she invites him to stay with her, and agrees to free his men. Odysseus and his men stay with her for a year, after which they decide to leave and go back to their homes. Circe agrees, tells them that they have to visit Hades, before they can return home.
James Joyce's Ulysses:
Joyce used the name - to refer to the 15th episode/chapter of his Ulysses. This episode is the episode of the Nighttown, which Bloom visits in search of Stephen. Joyce bases this episode on the concept of hallucination. It has a dream like quality in which reality and common sense take back seat. The scenes change rapidly as different persons (dead and alive) appear. Inanimate objects - the lemon scented soap that Bloom had bought at Sweny's, a cap, a fan, a gramophone, a waterfall, past sins, the morning and noon hours, end of the world - come alive and converse. Dead persons such as Bloom's grandfather, mother and his son Rudy appear. A couple of really crazy hallucinations are the court scene, where his (Bloom's) old friend, Dr Malachi Mulligan, sex specialist, appears to give medical testimony and announces that Dr Bloom is bisexually abnormal and is virgo intacta and Mrs Cohen's brothel which Bloom enters to find Stephen and Lynch and where Bloom is turned into a sow by Bella Cohen, the owner of the brothel. In a way, we do get somewhat used to the craziness we confront in this episode, and learn slowly not to look for rationality. When we succeed in this, we understand what a veritable delight awaits us in this episode. There is lot in this episode which remind us of the Circean episode in Odyssey.
It is midnight.
Selected Highlights of Episode 15 in Ulysses for the Uninitiated:
1. Sayings from Ulysses explored/explained:
- A plate crashes, a woman screams: a child wails. Oaths of a man roar, mutter, cease. Figures wander, lurk, peer from warrens. (15.37)
- .Would you like me perhaps to embrace you just for a fraction of a second? (15.429)
- Kaw kave kankury kake. (15.686)
- I did all a white man could.. . . Jim Bludso. Hold her nozzle again the bank. (15.797)
- . . . though branded as a black sheep, if he might say so, he meant to reform, to retrieve the memory of the past . . . (15.901)
- I'll flog him black and blue in the public streets. (15.1115)
- Habemus carnefice (15.1488)
- . . . with his sceptre strikes down poppies. (15.1565)
- Several shopkeepers . . . throw objects such as hambones, condensed milk tins, unsaleable cabbage, stale bread, sheep's tails, old pieces of fat. (15.1763)
- Professor Bloom is a finished example of the new womanly man. (15.1798)
- Whorusalaminyourhighhohhhh (15.2211)
- I am the dreamer creamery butter (15.2275)
- Pig God! He had two left feet. (15.2572)
- We'll manure you . . . (15.3212)
- I dreamt of a watermelon. (15.3922)
- Non serviam! (15.4228)
- But in here it is I must kill the priest and the king. (15.4436)
- I'll do him in, so help me fucking Christ! (15.4720)
(Episode.Line numbers in brackets above are according to the Critical Edition of Ulysses by H. W. Gabler, 1986)
2. Illustrations:
- Watercolours by Catherine Meyer
- The lyrics of the ballad, Jim Bludso of the Prairie Bell, by John Hay, published in 1971
- The recitation of the song, There is a Flower that Bloometh, by William Wallace, sung by John McCormack
- The poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade, by Lord Alfred Tennyson, published in 1854
- The video of the ballet, Dance of the Hours, by the Arts Ballet Theater of Florida
And much more!
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