Other parallels with the Odyssey are very explicit in this episode. Odysseus's anxiety-ridden visit to the Underworld of Greek mythology corresponds to Bloom's trip to Glasnevin Cemetery to bury Dignam, who in turn corresponds to Elpenor, the intemperate follower of Odysseus, who broke his neck in a fall from the roof of Circe's palace. The four rivers of the Greek Hades are paralleled by the four rivers that the men cross on the way to the cemetery: the Dodder, the Liffey, the Grand Canal, and the Royal Canal. As the mourners pass the tenements, they see stripped-up sections of a street, suggesting a means of access to Hades. Among the characters in this section, the kindly Martin Cunningham is a sort of Sisyphus, a Greek symbol of futility: Cunningham spends his life trying to keep out of debts incurred by his drunken wife, who continually pawns the family furniture every Saturday. And Father Coffey, who conducts the funeral service and who is humorously described as a dog, is a sort of Cerberus-figure, who guards the entrance to Hell, or Hades, but who can be compromised by dog biscuits.
In "Hades," Bloom is portrayed as the total outsider, and Bloom's fate, his isolation, is made all the more terrible because, as Joyce goes to great trouble to show, his acquaintances do not intentionally cut him off. He is simply not part of the group. The opening section brilliantly reveals Bloom's separateness: there is no need for the question, "Are we all here now?" since Bloom (who is called by his surname while Mr. Dedalus is called Simon) is the only one left, and needless to say, Bloom enters the carriage last.
Also, it is Bloom that Mr. Dedalus corrects when Bloom tries to look through the paper to find the Dan Dawson speech, which has just been mentioned in the carriage (and which will later be quoted and commented upon in "Aeolus"). Dedalus's stilted rebuke reveals a stuffy side of Stephen's father, and it also characterizes Bloom as a blundering anti-hero who can seldom do anything right; but, basically, Dedalus's comment is one that would be made to a social inferior. Again, Bloom suffers when the other three men acknowledge and greet Boylan, the "worst man in Dublin"; Bloom simply cannot understand how three men whom he respects can be attracted to Boylan, and his perplexity leads to even more disquieted isolation.
