Dec 1, 2017
British pedagogy in the lead-up to World War I reduced many Greek and Roman classics to a cult of mere power as in empire-building, boy-scouting or mountain climbing. That is the immediate context for Joyce’s revision of Homer and for his redefinition of heroics. He sees heroics as a neurotic attempt by men who, fearing emptiness and anomie after the long peace, seek to create a cult of strenuous energy ‑ yet this search led only to the carnage of World War I. Joyce’s use of the classics is more humble and wise.
Declan Kiberd, Ulysses and Us