Stephen Dedalus In Homer's Odyssey

6. Ulysses
The first episode is named Telemachus, the son of Ulysses and Penelope. He leaves his castle because it is occupied by young men who want to win Penelope`s heart and crown. Telemachus goes on a journey guided by a desire to find his father in order not to feel as a disrespected son in his own castle anymore. The book begins at 8 am on June 16 1904, a few miles outside of Dublin where Stephen Dedalus and Buck Mulligan are at Martello Tower. The episode opens with a scene where Mulligan is mockingly imitating the Roman mass, which recurs through the chapter, by using his shaving bowl in order to provoke Stephen. (Joyce:1) During this scene we have the first mentioning of Greek mythology when these two characters begin to discuss the

Secondly, there is the symbol of „usurper“ which parallels two different relationships. The first one is between Stephen Dedalus and Telemachus in Homer`s Odyssey. Stephen is like Telemachus because both of them are surrounded by people that are trying to undermine them. Mulligan takes advantage of Stephen and while doing it, he also mocks everything that Stephen stands or used to stand for. Therefore, Stephen sees Mulligan as a „usurper“. “A sleek brown head, a seal’s, far out on the water, round. Usurper.“ (20)
The second relation that can be drawn from this is between Dedalus and Hamlet, which is the reoccurring theme inside the book. Levitt gives comparison on how the Martello Tower and its surroundings reflect the court of Elsinore together with Stephen`s insistence to wear black after his mother´s death just as Hamlet was persistent to wear black for his father even thought the rest of the court stopped doing so, as well as mentioning of Stephen`s theory about Hamlet introduced us to another reoccurring theme inside of Ulysses. Through the first six episodes the style is combination of third person narration and stream of consciousness intertwined. Although the narrative is realistic and straightforward, in most situations it is difficult to distinguish where one ends and the other begins.

For example, comparisons with figures such as Don Giovanni or Pyrrhus are made for just that moment in that scene and nowhere else in the book. According to Grifford, each chapter reflects matching episode from Homer´s epic, however they do not correspond in the exact same order, although the beginning and the conclusion do match and the basic plot of the story remains the same. In Odyssey we follow Odysseus in his voyage back home and here we have Leopold Bloom who also wants to return home but at the same time avoids doing so. Odysseus had to go through many dangerous thing and had help from his son, while Leopold`s return home is moral achievement with assistance of a son-like figure Stephen. The importance of this first chapter lies in our understanding of Stephen`s inner thoughts and narrative in general in order to distinguish what is really happening and what is just going on inside character`s head. This stream of consciousness method that Joyce used provides us with a great deal of information about character, especially Leopold, that we would not have access otherwise. Therefore, we have detailed representation of not only just one moment in time, but characters exact thoughts as well. In this episode, we find Stephen at the beginning of his adventure in search for individualism and father-like