Some of the similarities between Bloom and Stephen are not easily detectable at first, but we need to look for them in order to fully understand both men. For example, the first paragraph of this chapter carries through the urinary motif established at the end of "Proteus"; we learn that Bloom's favorite kidneys, mutton ones, contain a "fine tang of faintly scented urine"; Stephen urinated in "long lassoes from the Cock . . . flow[ing] full . . . rising, flowing' in "Proteus." Bloom's cat, with whom he gets along well, reminds one that Stephen has just had a fearful encounter with a dog, and Bloom's cat has a "lithe black form," suggesting the panther that caused Haines's nightmare. In addition, Bloom's visions of the East (containing cattle) resemble Stephen's romantic dreams of the Orient mentioned in "Proteus" and recall Stephen's complicity with Deasy's letter about foot and mouth disease; significantly, Stephen feels that because of his complicity with Deasy, Mulligan will reward him with the title "bullockbefriending bard."
Thus Joyce ties "Calypso" with "Telemachus." Bloom wonders if his cat thinks he is as tall as a tower, and one recalls that Stephen lives in the Martello Tower. Bloom pours the cat some milk that has just been delivered by the milkman, and one recalls the old milkwoman in the opening chapter of the novel. Milly's letter to her father mentions Alec Bannon, and one is reminded of the allusion to Bannon in "Telemachus": "he found a sweet young thing down there. Photo girl he calls her." In an important parallel between Joyce's characterizations of Stephen and Bloom, the cloud which crosses over the sun to depress Bloom momentarily is the same one that affected Stephen's emotions in "Telemachus," and here it is described in almost identical language. In "Telemachus," the cloud triggered Stephen's doleful memory of his mother's death, while in "Calypso," it leads Bloom to think of death: the death of his Jewish heritage, his own aging process, and his desolation of spirit, which makes him cherish the warm flesh of his wife. Bloom's famous depiction of death as the "gray sunken cunt of the world" suggests, with horror, the death of Stephen's mother, Mary Dedalus.
