JOYCE		LUCK CLUB
DUBLINERS	ULYSSES	THE PORTRAIT

Chapter 14 / OXEN OF THE SUN - Deshil Holles Eamus: Hello! It was when I came across these words - Deshil Holles Eamus - that I had kind of 'abandoned' Ulysses, about a month ago. My short conversation with Robert Nicholson at the Sandycove James Joyce Center made me go back to the chapter. What did RN say about Deshil Holles Eamus? I am not sure anymore, but he (might have) said that it means turn right, let us go to Holles (street), a street like any other in Dublin where the maternity hospital is located. Oh, how short one's memory is. RN had said something else too about these words. Anyway, as everybody who has read this chapter knows, this is when our dear Bloom visits a maternity hospital to enquire after a friend who has been lying in labour for a couple of days. I am really amazed at this nice gesture. Can't imagine this happening often - men visiting the wives of their friends for such reasons. Naturally one knows that the entire chapter is structured on a kind of evolution, birth, of the language too, starting from Latin, going on to medieval English up to the styles of writers contemporary to Joyce. The repetition of words/phrases at the beginning of the chapter three times points to its Latin (religious) links. This technique is continued in the second sentence too. There Horhorn could mean SUN and simply Horne, the gynaecologist in that maternity hospital at that time. You see, one more instance of Joyce weaving contemporary Dublin life into Ulysses. Hoopsa, etc is how the midwives used to encourage the newly born ones to breath deeply and let out a lusty cry! The chapter is also marked for his lack of punctuation. When RN read the first chapter in the tower, I realised that it helps a lot to read Ulysses loudly. An opinion expressed by many here before. I am trying to read it loudly (not accoustically but in my mind's ear!) and have tried punctuating and reordering different sentences so as to make sense atleast to me. For instance, I have tried reordering the following sentence in the following paragraph: "For who is there who anything of some significance has apprehended but is conscious that that exterior splendour may be the surface of a downwardtending lutulent reality or on the contrary anyone so is there inilluminated as not to perceive that as no nature's boon ...." as "For who is there who has apprehended anything of some significance and (not but) is conscious that that exterior splendour may be the surface of a downwardtending lutulent (whatever this is) reality or on the contrary is there anyone so inilluminated as not to perceive that ...." Any comments? Any other suggestions? What about two pages afterwards: "Before born babe bliss had. Within womb won he worship." ? Well, I am half way into the chapter. One of the other sentences I had fun with is "With will will we withstand, withsay." which I understand to mean With will, we will understand. What does Withsay mean here? Also don't know what 'little mo' is in the sentence starting, "About that present time young Stephen filled all cups ....." More importantly, I still do not see what all these guys are doing getting drunk in a maternity hospital. Some of them are obviously doctors - perhaps some of them have just come off duty. But still getting so stony drunk there .... Glad about any comments Chandra Chandra........great post - I like the way you selfstyle what you read for your mind's ear - we all are participants in this great book don't you think? I did a bit of searching on the internet and in Gifford and can provide the following: The deshil holles... part is said to be a chant in the manner of a Roman company of priests - Arval Brethren - who would chant for the goddess of plenty/fertility. Deshil - after the Irish word deasil - turning to the right, clockwise, towards the sun. Holles = Holles Street [National Maternity Hospital stands on the corner of Merrion Square North and Holles Street] Eamus - Latin - let us go. +++++++++++++++++++++ Horhorn suggests Dr Andrew J Horne, one of the two masters of the hospital; and also suggests the horned-cattle of the sunGod. ++++++++++++++++++++ lutulent \Lu"tu*lent\, a. [L. lutulentus, fr. lutum mud.] Muddy; turbid; thick. [Obs.] Withsay \With*say"\, v. t. To contradict; to gainsay; to deny; to renounce. [Obs.] ++++++++++++++++++++ As for little "mo".....I suppose I read it as "more" but I don't understand the sentence fully so I don't know if that is correct. ++++++++++++++++++++ Can't really answer the question about the revelry at the Hospital although this below explains the significance quite well I think: From: http://ksumail.kennesaw.edu/~mglosup/ulysses/oxen.htm - "Joyce also amplifies the theme of betrayal, the "usurper," through adulterous and marauding behavior by the drunken students. The crime committed by Odysseus' men, killing the sacred oxen of Helios, suggests the parallel crime of treachery and debauchery committed by the students at the hospital. Contraception acts as a foil to fertility, and drunken obscene behavior despoils the innocence and beauty of birth. Blamires states that Joyce "expands the theme of the usurping adulterer who betrays . . . in the style of the Authorized Version of the Old Testament, echoing Lamentations and the Reproaches from the Good Friday liturgy. Overtones associate Molly Bloom with Ireland in adulterous betrayal" (149-150). Bloom, who abstains from drinking and obnoxious behavior and who is betrayed by Molly's infidelity, therefore becomes the complete human being, subjected to all the temptations and sufferings that life sustains. He fulfills his role as hero, father, and husband, thus becoming the prolific fledgling of Joyce's literary creation. " Hope this was of some help - it was for me!! Paul This may help. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary , 1913: Lutulent (Lu"tu*lent) a. [L. lutulentus, fr. lutum mud.] Muddy; turbid; thick (Obs.) Withsay: (With*say") v. t. To contradict; to gainsay; to deny; to renounce. [Obs.] Frank  Top! HOME!