The parallels in this chapter with Homer are very general. In the Odyssey, Menelaus tells Telemachus how he had to deal with Proteus, the god of the sea who could change forms at will. Here, Joyce reveals the changes that are beginning to take place within Stephen, and, through an "interior monologue" technique, Joyce mimes Stephen's shifting thoughts as being like the ever-fluctuating, "protean" nature of reality. The reference to the "winedark" sea pins the chapter to its Greek prototype with its use of a favorite Homeric "epic simile."
Stephen's initial problems in the chapter are philosophical: because all things are bound up in inescapable change ("ineluctable modality"), what is the nature of reality? Does an object exist if no one sees it? Does a sound exist if no creature hears it? Walking along the beach, wearing boots borrowed from Mulligan, Stephen thinks of the many philosophers whom he has read who treated this problem of permanence and change. Aristotle is central among them, as is Bishop George Berkeley (1685-1753), who supposedly denied the objective existence of matter and whom Samuel Johnson purportedly "refuted" by kicking a rock. The capricious nature of reality is epitomized in Stephen's reference to the waves as being the "steeds of Mananaan," the Irish god of the sea, an archetypal jester, who represents change. Once Mananaan resurrected a man from death but put the man's head on backwards, turning his face to the rear — an event which typifies this god of the altered lifestyle.
It is not surprising, then, that in a chapter which concerns the origin and nature of reality, Joyce would insert two women who Stephen pretends are midwives, and these two "midwives" would then make an appearance on the beach, "our mighty mother." These two women are probably from the "liberties," a lower-class section of Dublin, and they are "Florence MacCabe," the widow of Patrick MacCabe, and a lady friend. Mrs. MacCabe carries a heavy bag, and Stephen wonders if it contains a "misbirth." Although this gloomy thought is probably occasioned by Stephen's having been reared in a poor environment, it is soon followed by a variety of witty and humorous associations, as Stephen's emotions rapidly fluctuate. Stephen thinks of certain "mystic monks" whose sashes apparently link them together in the present and trace a path back to God. He envisions all navel cords as extending from Eve, and he wonders whether he could place a call on this "telephone connection" back to "Edenville." His reference to "belly without blemish" is descriptive of Eve, who, as a product of Adam's side, did not have a navel; it also suggests the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the Second Eve, who did not have a mortal blemish in her purity.
