—The Greek! he said again.
Seventh cast, I got 110 and 564.
—The Greek! he said again. Kyrios! Shining word! The vowels the Semite and the Saxon know not. Kyrie! The radiance of the intellect. I ought to profess Greek, the language of the mind. Kyrie eleison!
A line of Professor MacHugh, editorial writer of news paper.
Initial rhyme of Semite and Saxon. “Know not” is an old fashioned phrase.
He disparages Latin and praises Greek.
Ireland against the British Empire is Greece against the Roman Empire. The text
of the mass is in Latin, but for some reason "Kyrie Eleison" is in
Greek.
Ulysses is based on motifs from the
Odyssey and the whole story is full of longing for Greekness. The world of
the novel progresses within the framework of (1) Greece, (2) Judea, (3)
Catholic Rome and (4) Protestant Britain.
Another peak of the 20 century art,
inspired by the Odyssey is 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) by Stanley Kubrick. At first glance, the
novel Ulysses and this film bear no
resemblance to each other, but there are surprisingly many similarities.
There are many prayers quoted in this novel.
Requiem for Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Two Mixed Choirs and Orchestra by Ligeti György (1923 - 2006) was used in this film.
In this film with extremely little dialogue,
the first human words heard are not the crew's line "Here you are sir. Main level
please." but the lyrics of this music, "Kyrie”.
Ligeti is a Hungarian Jew, like Mr. Bloom's roots. Kubrick (1928 - 1999) was also a descendant of Jewish immigrants with roots in Central Europe.
Monolith as displayed at the École normale supérieure in Paris, France.
"File:ENS 2001 Monolith below.jpg" by Amandine Brige is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
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