Reinforcing the historical motif in "Nestor" is the theme of money and Joyce's insistence that excessive stress on monetary values has done much to destroy Ireland. Talk of money permeates the chapter, and one is reminded of the lines from Yeats's poem "September 1913": "For men were born to pray and save:/ Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,/ It's with O'Leary in the grave." In the double pun, modern prophets "prey" for forsaking salvation in order to "save" material things; and although in Ulysses, Deasy's play on words is unintentional, Joyce wants the reader to catch the irony of such an admonition's being directed at his mock heroic Christ figure, Stephen: "Because you don't save . . . . . .
Deasy, then, is the spokesman for the world-as-finance. The insolence of the students at his school is occasioned by their parents' wealth; they contrast with Stephen, who was the "poor boy" at Clongowes, forced to make up stories about his parentage. To Deasy, virtue means never having to say you borrowed. Even Deasy's plan to cure foot and mouth disease by using Koch's preparation (the wrong antidote, but one which does suggest a favorite author of Molly Bloom, Charles-Paul de Kock) is meant to prevent an embargo on Irish cattle with its subsequent loss of revenue. It is no wonder that the last picture we have of Deasy is epitomized by the last word of the chapter: "coins."
"Nestor," then, besides being "about" Stephen's personal difficulties, concerns two great forces in human history: military conquest and greed. Joyce calls attention to his dual theme by having Stephen's lesson focus on Pyrrhus during history class and on Cyril Sargent's "sums" after class.
