A Note on Metempsychosis

[Hank Baker]

Metempsychosis -- and Molly Bloom's mispronunciation of it as "met him pike 
hoses" -- occurs several times in ULYSSES.  As was already correctly pointed 
out, it first comes up in "Calypso" (4).  A quote is below.

    "He leaned downward and read near her polished thumbnail.
   --Metempsychosis?
   --Yes. Who's he when he's at home?
   --Metempsychosis, he said, frowning. It's Greek: from the Greek. That 
means the transmigration of souls.
   --O, rocks! she said. Tell us in plain words."

Bloom remembers it periodically, next in "Lestrygonians" (8):

"Parallax. I never exactly understood. There's a priest. Could ask him. Par 
it's Greek: parallel, parallax. Met him pike hoses she called it till I told 
her about the transmigration. O rocks!"

It also shows up in "Sirens" (11):

"Up the quay went Lionelleopold, naughty Henry with letter for Mady, with 
sweets of sin with frillies for Raoul with met him pike hoses    went Poldy 
on."

And also "Nausicaa" (13):

"O sweety all your little girlwhite up I saw dirty bracegirdle made me do 
love sticky we two naughty Grace darling she him half past the bed met him 
pike hoses frillies for Raoul to perfume your wife black hair heave under 
embon señorita young eyes"

Finally it shows up in the Q&A of "Ithaca" (17):

"Unusual polysyllables of foreign origin she interpreted phonetically or by 
false analogy or by both: metempsychosis (met him pike hoses), alias (a 
mendacious person mentioned in sacred scripture)."

In ULYSSES, the idea is important insofar as it suggests that Odysseus' 
adventuring soul is transmigrating to Leopold Bloom.   It's also no 
coincidence that at least two of the occurrences have a strong sexual 
connotation: by remembering his wife's mispronunciation of it, Bloom also is 
forced to countenance the fact that's he is being cuckolded.

What relevance does this have to the Pynchon's Learned English Dog?  One 
theory might proceed as follows: the dog and Leopold Bloom have both 
undergone some type of metempsychosis.  The dog has learned to speak and 
become more human in order to avoid being eaten.  Bloom, who appears to the 
world at large as merely a cuckolded loser, is represented as a classical 
hero in Joyce's narrative.  Both have done so in order to get through the 
day, just as the dog says and as the narrative structure of ULYSSES famously 
shows.  For the dog, it's to not end up as a food source; for Bloom, it's to 
not be driven mad by his wife's promiscuity.   It's a stretch, sure, but if 
there's any connection whatsoever it seems like it might be based on this.

Due to its memorable repetition, I would gamble that I am not the only 
reader who was introduced to the idea of "met him pike hoses" from ULYSSES, 
and who tends to associate the word closely with that work.  It seems hard 
to bring it up without somehow invoking Joyce.


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