Chapter 2 takes place at Headmaster Garrett Deasy's school on Dalkey Avenue in Dalkey, about one mile southeast of the Martello Tower at Sandycove. Stephen would undoubtedly have walked the short distance and would have arrived just after nine o'clock, a bit tardily. His conversation with Mr. Deasy ends just before 10:30 a.m. The time of the Nestor Episode is traditionally set at 10:00 a.m. because this is the hour at which the boys break for their hockey practice, during Stephen's history lesson.
The chapter begins with Stephen's calling on Cochrane, a student whose lack of enthusiasm typifies the feelings of Stephen's unruly class, whose members would rather listen to their teacher's riddles and jokes (which they ridicule). The lesson is about the Greek hero Pyrrhus, another victim of a usurper, who, like the archetypal Irish prophet, remained faithful to a lost cause to the end. After he dismisses the class, Stephen spends time helping the inept student Cyril Sargent; he realizes that the boy's mother must once have loved this tired child in spite of his inadequacies, and Stephen is reminded again of the loss of his mother, Mary Dedalus.
A short time later, in Mr. Deasy's study, Stephen listens to his headmaster's moralizing, then accepts his meager salary from Deasy. Mr. Deasy also gives Stephen a letter which he has written about the foot and mouth disease of livestock, cattle in particular. Stephen has friends among editors, and Deasy feels that there will be no trouble in getting his (clichŽ-filled) letter published in the newspaper.
