Nestor

This episode opens with a reflection on memory; sparked by Cochrane's forgetfulness: "The boy's blank face asked the blank window." Stephen is struggling with his past and as he half-heartedly teaches history to the class, that struggle extends to all that has past. He plays at an interpretation of Blake that would vindicate him: one day all existence becomes infinitely condensed and history will become inconsequential. This hope plays a big role in Stephens pity for the forgetful students in his class like Cochrane, Armstrong, and Sargent. He sees a validity in the blankness of their minds.

Stephen's thought on historical philosophy is resistant to Deasy's fatalism. But he can't manage to shake determinism all together. When he asks in thought: "Or was that only possible which came to pass?" he mockingly replies to himself, "weave, weaver of the wind." This is an allusion to prophecy through the mode of an allusion to Irishness. The wind, he thinks, might be guided but to us it is unknowable.

This doesn't stop Stephen from confidently contradicting Deasy: "The same room and hour, the same wisdom: and I the same. Three times now. Three nooses round me here. Well. I can break them in this instant if I will." At least part of Stephen is disdainfully indifferent
to Deasy along with theological determinism and a money-driven outlook on life. When Deasy motions for order, Stephen replies with chaos. To his history? "History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake." God's plan? "God is a shout in in the street." The world seems to bend in Stephen's favor in these arguments. When Deasy insists: "All history moves towards one great goal," a goal is scored in the students' hockey game outside. This undermines Deasy's argument with a meaningless random coincidence that ties itself to his stubborn point. But a different reading suggests that Stephen's destiny is calling him, and that God gives signs.

These contradictions play out towards the end of the chapter when Stephen's indifference to Deasy softens. He agrees that he "was not born to be a teacher". And Stephen agrees to help Deasy publish his paper, not only because Deasy is Stephen's boss, but because of a self-conscious decision on Stephen's part: "Still I will help him in his fight. Mulligan will dub me a new name: the bollockbefriending bard." Stephen seems to be giving up his struggle against fate.

Deasy makes an interesting Nestor. Homer's Nestor often gave advice to unwilling listeners in the form of tiresome anecdotes about his own achievements as a warrior. Deasy has similar traits, but his claims to greatness have to do with financial wisdom and elderly experience, both of which Stephen rejects. Ironically, he is both a lover of money and an avid anti-semite. His age and experience testifies only to his stubborn and narrow interpretation of history. What Deasy himself believes is a wealth of wisdom and knowledge is actually flawed and inaccurate. Stephen often has to correct him.